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ANARCHISM : 

Its    Plnilosopliy   and   Scientific    Basis 

As  Defined  by  Some  of  Its  Apostles. 


If  the  people  are  silent  under  oppression,  it  is  lethargy —the  forerunner  of 
Death  to  Public  Liberty.' --T/io?7ias  Jefferson. 


BY 


A.    R.    PARSONS. 


Chicago: 

Mrs.  a.  R.  Parsons,  Publisher, 

785  Milwaukee  Avk. 


COPYRIGHT  1887, 

BY 

MRS.  A.  R.  PARSONS. 


THE    :^EFOR]VlKI^. 


All  grim  and  soiled  and  brown  with  tan,     . 

I  saw  a  Stronj?  One,  in  his  wrath. 
Smiting  the  g^odless  shrines  of  man 
Along  his  path. 

The  Church  beneath  her  trembling  dome 

Essayed  in  vain  her  ghostly  charm  : 
Wealth  shook  within  his  gilded  home 
With  strange  alarm. 

Fraud  from  his  secret  chambers  fled 

Before  the  sunlight  bursting  in: 
Sloth  drew  her  pillow  o'er  her  head 
To  drown  the  din. 

"Spare,"  Art  implored,  "yon  holy  pile  ; 

That  grand,  old  time-worn  turret,  spare  ; 
Meek  Reverence  kneeling  in  the  aisle 
Cried  out  "  Forbear  !" 

Gray-bearded  Use,  Avho,  deaf  and  blind. 

Groped  for  his  old  accustomed  stone, 
Leaned  on  his  staff,  and  wept  to  find 
His  seat  o'erthrown. 

Young  Romance  raised  his  dreamy  eyes, 

O'erhung  with  paly  locks  of  gold, — 
"Why  smite,"  he  asked  in  sad  surprise, 
"The  fair,  the  old  ?" 

Yet  louder  rang  the  Strong  One's  stroke, 

Yet  nearer  flashed  the  axe's  gleam  ; 
Shuddering  and  sick  of  heart  I  woke 
As  from  a  dream. 

I  looked  :    Aside  the  cloud -dust  rolled — 

The  Waster  seemed  the  Builder  too; 
Up  springing  from  the  ruined  Old 
I  saw  the  New. 

•Twas  but  the  ruin  of  the  bad, — 

The  wasting  of  the  wrong  and  ill  ; 
Whate'er  of  good  the  old  time  had 
W  as  living  still. 

Calm  grew  the  brows  of  him  I  feared  ; 

The  frown  which  awed  me  passed  away; 
And  left  behind  a  smile  which  cheered 
Like  breaking  day. 

The  grain  grew  green  on  battle  plains. 

O'er  swarded  war-mounds  grazed  the  cow 
The  slave  stood  forging  from  nis  chains 
The  spade  and  plow. 

Where  frowned  the  fort,  pavillions  gay, 

And  cottage  windows,  flower-entwined, 
Looked  out  upon  the  peaceful  bav 
And  hills  behind. 


Throuo^h  vine-wrcalhcd  cups  with  wine  once  red 

The  lights  on  brimming  crystal  fell. 

Drawn,  sparkling,  from  the  rivulet  head 

And  mossy  well. 

Through  prison  walls,  like  heaven-sent  hope, 
Fresli  breezes  blew,  and  sunbeams  strayed. 
And  with  the  idle  gallows  rope 

The  young  child  played. 

Where  the  doomed  victim  in  his  cell 
Had  counted  o'er  the  weary  hours, 
The  school  girls,  answering  to  the  bells 
Came  crowned  with  flowers. 

Grown  wiser  for  the  lessons  given, 

I  fear  no  longer,  for  I  know 
That,  where  the  share  is  deepest  driven. 
The  best  fruits  grow. 

The  out- worn  rite,  the  old  abuse 

The  pious  fraud  transparent  grown, 
The  good  held  captive  in  the  use 
Of  wrong  alone, — 

These  wait  their  doom,  from  that  great  law 
Which  makes  the  past  time  serve  to-day; 
And  fresher  life  the  world  shall  draw 
From  their  decay. 

Oh  backward  looking  son  of  time  ! 

The  new  is  old,  the  old  is  new, 
The  cycle  ®f  a  change  sublime 

Still  sweepi-ng  through. 

So  wisely  taught  the  Indian  seer  ; 

Destroying  Seva,  forming  Brahm, 
Who  wake  by  turns,  earth's  love  and  fear 
Are  one,  the  same. 

Idlv,  as  thou,  in  that  old  day 

Thou  mournest,  did  thy  sire  repine  ; 
So  in  his  time,  thy  child  grown  gray 
Shall  sigh  for  thine. 

But  life  shall  on  and  upward  go  ; 

Th'  eternal  step  of  Progress  beats 
To  that  great  anthem,  calm  and  slow. 
Which  God  repeats. 

Take  heart ! — The  Waster  builds  again — 

A  charmed  life  old  (goodness  hatn; 
The  tares  may  perish, — but  the  grain 
Is  not  for  death. 

God  works  in  all  things  ;  all  obey 

His  first  propulsion  from  the  night; 
Wake  thou  and  watch  !  — ^the  world  is  gray 
With  morning  light' 

— Whittier. 


*  This  poem  had  long  been  a  favorite  with  Mr.  Parsons,  and  was  recited  bv  him  to  the  jailers 
and  the  reporters  but  a  short  time  before  his  death. 


M161G94 


DEDICATED 

To  the  toiling  masses  in  every  land,  striving  for  their 

Economic  Emancipation, 

not  the  least  of  whom  is  my  beloved  wife, 

LUCY    E.   PARSONS. 


C4fr^' 


/;4>v-<i^^>^ 


«  Let  the  voice  of  the  people  be  heard!     O— *' 


CONTENTS. 


PART    I. 

PAGB 

CHAPTER  I.     Capitalism — Its  Development  in  the  United  States.  11 

II.  "                 "                 "                "                    "     (continued)  15 

III.  «                 «'                 "                "                    "               «  19 

IV.  "          — Its  Origin  and  Development  in  Europe  21 


PART    II. 

CHAPTER  I.     Anarchy  on  Trial 61 

II.  Views  of  the   Prisoners 53 

August  Spies  on  Anarchy 53 

Address  of  Michael  Schwab 66 

Oscar  Neebe's  Remarks 72 

Adolph  Fischer 74 

Address  of  Louis  Lingg 83 

George  Engel  on  Anarchism 86 

Samuel  Fielden  on  Socialism  and  Anarchism 89 

Albert  R.  Parsons  on  Anarchism 92 

Parsons' Plea  for  Anarchy 107 


Lucy  E.  Parsons  on  Anarchy 109    / 


III.  The  Scientific  Basis  OF  Anarchy 111 

IV.  The  Coming  Anarchy . 123 

V.  An  Anarchist   on  Anarchy 136 

VI.  Dyer  D.  Lum  on  Anarchy . 149 

1.  What  is  Anarchy.'' 

2.  What  Anarchy  Offers. 

3.  Who  should  be  Anarchists. 

4.  Co-operation. 

VII.  Anarchy— C.  L.  James 159 

VIII.  The  Social  Revolution 164 


/ 


APPENDIX. 


Philosophic  Anarchism . 171 

A.  R.  Parsons' Appeal 178 

Open  Letter  to  Governor  Oglesby _ 185 

Law  vs.  Liberty 186 

Views  OF  General  Parsons 188 

Letter  TO  George  Francis  Train _ 193 

Arrest  OF  Mrs.  Parsons  and  Children 194 

Last  Hours  OF  Life 197 

Last  Lettf.r  to  av  Or.i)  Comrade 200 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTE 


To  MY  Friekds  and  the  Public  : 

With  the  aid  of  friends,  I  am  enabled  to  present  for  your  perusal 
and  consideration,  the  last  efforts  of  my  dear  deceased  husband,  to 
enlighten  the  seekers  after  truth  and  information  upon  the  great  and 
burning  questions  of  the  age  :  the  relations  of  the  wage-earner  to  the 
wage-absorber  in  society. 

This  book,  as  the  reader  is  doubtless  aware,  was  prepared  near  the 
close  of  an  eighteen  months'  incarceration  in  a  lonely,  narrow, 
prison-cell.  If  it  should  at  times  lack  any  of  the  old-time  vigor 
which  characterized  his  former  writings,  please  remember  that  the 
author  was  debarred  from  all  the  advantages  and  elements  that  go  to 
making  up  a  full  and  complete  life  ;  that  from  the  day  on  which  he 
voluntarily  came  forward  and  gave  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  State, 
(the  ''Law  and  Order"  people,)  he  had  never  breathed  a  breath  of  pure, 
fresh  air,  never  looked  upon  a  growing  sprig  of  grass,  never  beheld 
either  earth  or  sky  ;  that  nothing  met  his  eye  but  frowning,  bare  stone 
walls  relieved  only  by  bolts,  bars  and  chains  ;  that  in  his  6x8  inner 
tomb  he  was  confined  twentv  one  hours  six  days  in  the  week,  and  forty 
hours  on  "  the  Lord's  day  '  — from  Saturday  afternoon  until  Monday 
morning;  and  that  he  was  denied  the  company  of  friends  excepting  the 
few  moments  when  granted  the  privilege  of  conversing  with  them 
through  a  close  wire  netting,  and  having  never  touched  the  hand  of 
even  his  wife,  save  twice,  through  all  the  long  period  of  his  imprison- 
ment. 

Should  there  be  a  tinge  of  sadness  in  these  last  words  of  a  noble 
and  courageous  soul,  remember  they  were  written  beneath  the  shadow 
of  that  coming  tragedy,  whose  gloom  fell  athwart  all  true  and  loving 
hearts. 

With  these  few  remarks — meaning  no  apology  where  none  is 
needed— I  present  to  you  these  last  efforts  of  one  who  lived  in  the 
world  with  the  one  purpose  of  making  it  better  and  happier  for  his 
having  lived. 

And  now,  I  speak  as  one  who  knows  and  has  the  right  to  speak  : 
No  nobler,  purer  truer,  more  unselfish  man  ever  lived,  than  Albert  R. 
Parsons,  and  when  he  and  his  comrades  were  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of 
class  hatred,  the  people  of  the  nineteenth  century  committed  the 
hideous  crime  of  strangling  their  best  friends. 

Fraternally  yours,  Lucy  E.  Paesons. 


TO  THE  I^EADER. 


To  trace  the  origin  and  growth  of  the  Wage-Labor  system,  known  as 
modern  Capitalism,  to  delineate  the  Philosophy  and  Scientific  Basis  of  the 
modern  Labor  movement,  known  as  Anarchism,  is  the  purport  of  this  little 
book. 

The  first  part  of  this  work  gives  a  historical  outline  of  the  period 
prior  to  the  Revolution  of  1776  up  to  the  present  time  in  the  United  States ;  it 
also  traces  the  origin  and  development  of  the  wage  system  in  Europe  from 
the  fourteenth  century,  and  contains  copious  extracts  from  Karl  Marx's 
"Capital"  on  the  economic  law  of  wages. 

The  second  part  is  devoted  to  extracts  from  the  speeches  of  the 
eight  condemned  Anarchists,  Samuel  Fielden,  August  Spies,  Oscar  Neebe, 
Adolph  Fischer,  Louis  Lingg,  George  Engle,  A.  R.  Parsons  and  Michel 
Schwab  on  the  subject  of  "Anarchy,"  which  were  delivered  before  the  court 
in  reply  to  the  question  why  sentence  should  not  be  pronounced;  also 
articles  defining  Anarchy,  by  Peter  Krapotkin,  Elisee  Reclus,  C.  L.  James 
and  other  well-known  Anarchists. 

This  book  has  been  written  and  compiled  in  response  to  the  public 
demand  for  information  upon  the  subjects  treated  of.  The  circumstances 
under  which  the  work  has  been  performed,  in  my  dungeon,  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  gallows,  should,  if  aught  could,  lend  additional  interest  and 
importance  to  the  matters  presented  therein.  If  the  public  is  furnished 
information,  or  assisted  in  reaching  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  great 
question  of  Capital  and  Labor  by  a  perusal  of  these  pages,  I  shall  deem 
that  a  sufficient  reward  for  my  humble  effort  to  supply  it. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

Cell  29,  Cook  Co.,  Jail.  ) 

Chicago,  Illinois,  Oct.  27th,  1887.  \ 


HoiiLY  Lodge,  Kensington,  ? 
London,  May  23, 1857.        ) 

As  long  as  you  (Americans)  have  a  boundless  extent  of  fertile  and  \moccupied  land,  your  la- 
boring population  will  be  far  more  at  ease  than  the  laboring  population  of  the  old  worid,  and 
while  that  is  the  case  the  Jeffersonian  politics  may  continue  to  ex  st  without  causing  any  fatal  cal- 
-amity.  But  the  time  will  come  when  New  England  will  be  as  thickly  peopled  as  old  England. 
Wages  will  be  low,  and  will  fluctuate  with  you  as  well  as  with  us.  You  will  have  your  Manchesters 
a,nd  Birminghams,  and  in  those  Manchesters  and  Birminghams  hundreds  of  thousands  of  artisans 
will  assuredly  be  sometimes  out  of  work.  Then  your  institutions  will  be  fairly  brought  to  the  test. 
Distress  everywhere  make^  the  laborer  mutinous  and  discontented. 

*  *  *  The  day  will  come  when  in  the  state  of  New  York  there  will  be  a  multitude  of 
people,  none  of  whom  has  had  more  than  half  a  breakfast,  or  expects  to  have  more  than  half  a  din- 
ner. _  On  one  side  is  a  statesman  preaching  patience,  respect  for  vested  rights,  strict  observance  of 
public  faith.  On  the  other  is  a  demagogue  ranting  about  the  tyranny  of  capitalists  and  usurers, 
and  asking  why  anyl>ody  should  be  permitted  to  drink  champagne  and  ride  in  a  carriage,  while 
thousands  of  honest  folks  are  in  want  of  nece  saries.  What  is  the  workingman  likely  to  do  when 
he  hears  his  children  cry  for  bread? — Lord  MacauIiEY. 


PART  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Capitalism — Its  Development  in  the  United  States. 


Among  all  nations,  the  United  States  of  America  has  alone  possessed 
the  opportunity  for  developing  representative  or  Republican  government 
to  its  utmost.  Separated  by  two  oceans,  isolated  and  comparatively 
secure  from  sudden  invasion  or  the  diplomatic  embroglios  of  imperialistic 
Europe  and  Asia,  the  united  capacity  of  Republican  government  to 
minister  to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  its  citizens  and  the  experience — 
history — of  one  hundred  years  has  formed  the  record  from  which  the 
living  present  learns  its  lesson  of  the  past. 

Free  government,  a  free  people,  was  the  talismanic  charm  which 
caused  the  emigrant  to  abandon  the  old  world  and  hasten  to  the  new. 

The  population  of  the  colonies  in  1776  wa*s  3,500,000.  Today  the 
population  of  the  United  States  is  estimated  at  65,000,000.  The  control- 
ling influence  which  impelled  the  emigrant  to  the  United  States  was  the 
belief  in  the  inducement  held  out  that  a  home  for  his  loved  ones  could  be 
acquired.  It  is,  therefore,  a  fact,  that  the  United  States  has  been  devel- 
oped and  populated  because  of  economic  rather  than  political  influences. 
It  has  been  and  is  still  the  belief  of  many  that  the  comparative  economic 
freedom  which  the  poor  have  enjoyed  in  this  country  was  owing  to  its 
political  institutions,  its  republican  form  of  government.  Lord  Macauley, 
whose  prognostication  is  quoted  at  the  opening  of  this  chapter,  foresaw  what 
experience  has  since  demonstrated,  to-wit :  That  the  Republic  itself  was 
the  result  and  the  cause  of  the  comparative  economic  liberty  which  pre- 
vailed in  America. 

The  revolution  of  1776  was  precipitated  when  the  British  government 
sought  to  impose  "taxation  without  representation"  upon  the  colonies,  but 
there  was  a  long  antecedent  train  of  offenses  which  the  colonists  had  en- 
dured. The  British  nobility,  aristocrats  and  landlords  had  been  for  years 
past  engaged  in  seizing  upon  the  wild  lands  of  America  and  subjecting  its 
inhabitants  to  the  servitude  prevailing  in  the  old  world.  A  few  noblemen 
held  "})atents''  from  George  III,  which  covered  vast  regions  of  territory 
and  em))raced  millions  of  acres.  The  revolution  of  1776  was  inspired  by 
determination  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  British  rule,  from  the  oppressions 
of  which  most  of  the  American  colonists  had  fled.  The  authors  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  gave  the  key-note  of  that  struggle  when  they 
proclaimed  the  inalienable  Rights  of  Man  as  the  issue  involved.      During 


12     '  THE    PEILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

the  seven  years'  war  which  followed,  and  for  five  years  afterward  (1787) 
the  inhabitants  of  the  colonies  were  practically  without  government  or  law. 
Thomas  Paine,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  he  did  as  much  with  his  pen  as 
Washington  had  done  with  his  sword  for  American  liberty,  describes  in  his 
writings  the  motives  and  purposes  of  the  men  engaged  in  that  conflict. 
Paine' s  work,  entitled  "Rights  of  Man,"  embodied  the  "American  Idea' ^ 
of  liberty  as  then  contended  for.     He  says: 

It  ia  therefore  a  perversion  of  terms  to  say  that  a  charter  (government)  gives 
rights.  It  operate^  by  a  contrary  effect,— that  of  taking  rights  away.  Rights  are 
inherently  in  all  the  inhabitants,  but  charters,  by  annulling  those  rights  in  the 
majority,  leave  the  right  by  exclusion  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  If  charters  were 
constructed  so  as  to  express  in  direct  terms  "that  every  inhabitant  who  is  not  a 
member  of  a  corporation  shall  not  exercise  the  right  of  voting,"  such  charters 
would,  in  the  face,  be  charters,  not  of  rights,  but  of  exclusion.  The  effect  is  the 
same  under  the  form  in  which  they  now  stand;  the  only  persons  on  whom  they 
now  operate  are  the  persons  whom  they  exclude. 

The  period  following  the  war,  when  the  colonies  or  states  were 
engaged  in  framing  the  national  constitution,  is  most  instructive,  as  it 
was  now  that  the  fruits  of  that  struggle  were  to  be  garnered.  Some  of 
the  states  were  slow  to  enter  the  compact  and  some  for  a  time  refused  to 
do  so,  such  was  the  fear  of  the  people  for  centralized  government. 
Finally,  a  reconciliation  was  brought  about  mainly  by  those  whose 
property  rights  gave  them  influence  and  power,  and  delegates  from  all 
the  states  were  chosen  to  the  national  convention  to  form  the  Federal 
Constitution.  Here  were  assembled  men  of  varying  ideas,  instincts  and 
interests.  But  the  predominating  influence  was  the  property  interest, 
property  in  land,  etc.,  but  especially  in  slaves.  The  people  having 
struggled  and  suffered  for  seven  long  and  bloody  years,  were  alive  to  the 
importance  of  the  work  of  the  convention  and  its  possible  effects  upon 
their  welfare.  But  there  were  those  who  reverenced  human  rights  only 
so  far  as  these  did  not  intrude  upon  their  property  rights.  Thus  began 
the  game  of  Politics.  The  convention  found  it  necessary  to  conduct  their 
proceedings  with  closed  doors,  excluding  from  its  sessions  all  who  were 
not  members.  Here,  for  four  months  the  "Star  Chamber"  (secret)  sessions 
were  held  in  an  endeavor  to  bring  about  a  compromise  of  divergent 
interests  and  ideas  upon  the  property  question.  The  debates  were  long 
and  heated.  At  times  the  convention  was  threatened  with  disruption. 
There  were  those  who  believed  in  a  landed  aristocracy  and  restricted 
suffrage,  led  by  Alexander  Hamilton;  others  wanted  free  land  and  man- 
hood suffrage;  and  still  others  contended  the  liberation  of  the  chattel  slave 
was  included  in  the  meaning  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, — and 
vice  versa.  A  compromise  was  finally  reached  which  left  the  rights  of 
property  in  slaves,  land  and  money  intact.  The  assertion  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  that  "all  men  were  created  free  and  equal,  and  pos- 
sessed with  certain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  were  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness"  was  defended  by  those  who  favored  a  constitution 
framed  in  accordance  with  the  intent  and  spirit  of  that  document.  The  slave 
holding  interest  objected  and  held  that  the  blacks — the  chattel  slaves — 
were  not  included  in  the  meaning  or   intent  of  the  Declaration.      John 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  13 

Adams,  the  aristocrat,  who  also  favored  a  limited  monarchy  as  against 
Jefferson,  Franklin,  Paine,  Henry,  Washington  and  others,  in  the  memor- 
able debate  upon  this  question  said:  ''What  matters  it  whether  you  give 
the  food  and  clothes  to  the  slaves  direct,  or  whether  you  just  give  him 
enough  in  wages  to  purchase  the  same'-"'  This  view  of  the  question  finally 
prevailed  and  was  accepted  as  the  basis  of  compromise.  The  rights  of 
property  triumphed.  The  wage-worker  was  categorical  with  the  chattel 
slave.  Indeed  the  difference  was  recognized  among  the  wealthy  class  as 
existing  not  only  in  form  but  identical  in  effect.  The  Constitution  as  agreed 
upon  by  the  convention  was  submitted  to  the  states — the  people  for  ratifi- 
cation or  rejection.  Though  dissatisfied,  the  people  were  induced  to 
accept  it,  on  the  ground  that  universal  suffrage,  vesting  all  law — making 
power  in  the  people ;  guaranteeing  free  speech,  free  press,  and  unmolested 
assemblage,  the  right  to  keep  and  bear  arms ;  speedy  trial  by  an  impartial 
jury;  and  protection  against  unreasonable  and  unlawful  search  or  seizure 
of  persons  or  property — were  constitutional  safeguards  deemed  ample 
protection  for  their  rights. 

The  United  States  formed  a  vast,  unsettled,  inexhaustible  region.  A 
comparatively  small  strip  of  country  from  Maine  to  Florida  was  sparsely 
inhabited.  All  who  desired  could  acquire  a  competency.  The  wage-class 
felt  no  apprehension  on  that  score.  The  doors  of  the  nation  were  thrown 
open  and  the  poor  and  miserable  and  despoiled  of  every  clime  were 
invited  to  come  to  the  "land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the  brave"  as  the 
"harbor  and  refuge  of  the  oppressed."  That  invitation  was  eagerly  heard 
and  quickly  accepted,  and  to  this  fact  alone  is  due  the  rapid  develop- 
ment and  growth  of  the  Republic.  For  years  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  the  slave  trade  flourished  and  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
ignorant  helpless  Africans  were  kidnapped  and  brought  in  chains  to  the 
XJnited  States.  The  treatment  of  the  great  populous  tribes  of  Indians 
was  of  a  similar  character.  Those  who  could  not  be  subdued  and  en- 
slaved were  killed,  and  as  America  was  the  native  heath  of  the  Indian 
they  chose  death  rather  than  slavery,  until  there  remains  scarcely  a  rem- 
nant of  this  once  powerful  race  upon  the  continent.  About  1880,  when 
population  had  greatly  increased,  in  common  with  land  values  and  other 
property,  the  special  advantages  of  chattel-slave  labor  which  was  bo  ap- 
parent in  a  new,  unsettled  country  began  to  diminish.  With  a  growth  of 
population  came  an  augmentation  of  wage-laborers,  and  the  modes  of 
industry,  such  as  manufacture,  etc.,  where  not  very  well  adapted  to  chattel 
labor.  It  began  to  appear  that  icage  labor  was  cheaper  and  therefore 
more  remuneratire  to  capital  than  iras  chattel -slare  labor.  There  arose 
in  consequence  conflicting  interests  upon  this  subject,  which  by  degrees — 
as  population  increased — developed  into  sectional  conflicts,  which  were 
geographically  designated  "north"  and  "south." 

For  certain  forms  of  labor — agriculture  for  instance — chattel-slave 
labor  was  considered  to  be  more  profitable  than  wage  labor.  But  in  man- 
ufacture and  all  departments*  of  skilled  industry  the  labor  of  wage-workers 
was  preferred  because  more  remunerative.  The  supply  of  chattel-slaves 
was  cut  off  by  a  law  enacted  prohibiting  the  slave  trade,  and  this  fact  was 
alone  suflicient  to  cause  the  death-blow  to  that  form  of  labor.     But  the 


14  THE  PHIHLOSOPHY  OF  ANAECHISM. 

simple,  primitive  forms  of  production  for  which  the  labor  of  chattel- slaves 
was  adopted  caused  the  owners  of  that  form  of  capital  to  invest  it  where 
it  would  bring  the  greatest  returns.  Therefore  the  slave-holding  interests 
gravitated  to  the  southern  portion  of  the  United  States,  where  a  mild 
climate,  lengthened  seasons  and  consequently  cheaper  clothes,  fuel  and 
shelter  was  to  be  obtained.  The  propertied  class — capitalists — were  in- 
tent only  on  profits  and  losses.  Out  of  these  two  forms  of  labor — chattel 
and  wage — arose  the  "irrepressible  conflict"  and  the  political  shibboleth, 
"America  must  be  all  slave  or  all  free."  The  slave-holding  interests  be- 
came alarmed  at  the  increasing  power  of  the  wage-labor  system.  They 
perceived  their  "vested  right"  to  lawfully,  constitutionally  hold  property 
in  slaves  to  be  threatened.  Their  power  had  until  now  been  supreme  in 
national  affairs  and  they  were  blinded  with  arrogance.  They  refused  all 
overtures  to  peaceably  manumit  their  slaves  by  means  of  gradual  emanci- 
pation, to  be  recompensed  out  of  the  public  treasury,  but,  on  the  contrary^ 
indignantly  rejected  all  such  proposals  and  insisted  upon  their  constitu- 
tional right  to  extend  slavery  into  the  Territories.  Their  attitude  sharp- 
ened the  contest  between  the  wage-labor  capitalists  and  the  chattel  slave- 
owners. Upon  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States  in  IcSOO  "the  South"  seceeded  from  "the  North"  and  set 
up  a  Confederacy  which  recognized  chattle-slave  labor  as  its  corner-stone. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  though  in  sentiment  an  "Abolitionist,"  an  ardent  defender  of 
man's  abstract  right  to  life  and  liberty,  was  also,  for  the  time  being,  the 
representative  of  the  wage-labor  system.  The  exigen6ies  of  the  war  of 
the  rebellion  afforded  the  sought-for  opportunity,  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  was  issued  as  "a  military  necessity."  Chattel-slave  labof 
was  abolished  and  the  system  of  wage-labor  established  in  its  stead. 
While  upon  its  surface  this  struggle  between  the  "North"  and  the 
"South"  was  waged  ostensibly  in  behalf  of  "free"  against  "slave"  labor, 
and  was  apparently  a  political  question  waged  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  it  was,  in  fact,  an  economic  question  growing  out  of  the  two  diverse 
and  conflicting  systems  of  labor,  viz. :  chattel  and  wage.  The  owners  of 
capital  in  the  form  of  chattel-slaves  were  compelled  by  armed  revolution 
to  relinquish  that  form  of  property.  They  threw  themselves  as  a  barrier 
across  the  pathway  of  societary  evolution,  of  historic  development  and 
were  swept  aside  by  its  irresistable  force. 

The  Rebellion  of  1861  was  a  failure.  The  "Rebellion  of  177G  was  a 
success.  The  former  was  a  struggle  against  the  evolutionary  develop- 
ment of  modern  capitalism ;  the  latter  was  fought  on  the  line  with  and 
for  progress.  Both  contests  are  generally  regarded  as  political;  but  the 
underlying,  moving  cause  in  each  was  economic.  The  apparently  polit- 
ical character  of  these  two  revolutionary  struggles  arises  from  the  fact 
the  contest  in  both  instances  was  waged  by  one  portion  of  the  propertied 
class  against  the  other  upon  questions  of  property. 

Ever  since  the  organization  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
there  has  existed  among  the  people  a  small,  t)ut  earnest  minority,  known 
as  "Abolitionists,"  because  they  advanced  the  abstract  right  of  "  all  men  " 
to  "life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  But  the  Abolitionists 
were  an  insignificant  minority.     Their  demands  w^re  never  heeded  until 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHI8M.  15 

the  requirements  of  modern  capitalism  began  to  require  an  extension  of 
the  system  of  wage  labor  in  preference  to  the  system  of  chattel-slave 
labor.  Capital  invested  in  wage  labor  and  capital  invested  in  chattel- 
slave  labor  were  hostile  in  their  interests.  The  slave-holding  interests- 
were  more  sensitive  and  apprehensive  of  injury  and  were  in  conse- 
quence easily  mobilized  on  the  political  battle-field.  From  the  organi- 
zation of  the*  Government  up  to  the  slave-holders'  rebellion  in  1861  the 
propertied  interests  in  chattel- slaves  had  practical  control  and  direction, 
of  the  affairs  of  Government. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Capitalism — Its  Development  in  the  United  States. — Continued. 


With  the  termination  of  the  war  of  1861  began  the  second  epoch  of 
capitalism  in  the  United  States.  The  ex-chattel  slave  was  enfranchised^ 
— made  a  political  sovereign.  He  was  now  a  "freeman"  without  an  inch 
of  soil,  a  cent  of  money,  a  stitch  of  clothes  or  a  morsel  of  food.  He  was 
free  to  compete  with  his  fellow  wage-worker  for  an  opportunity  to  serve 
capital.  The  conditions  of  his  freedom  consisted  in  the  right  to  work  on 
the  terms  dictated  by  his  employer,  or — starve.  There  no  longer  existed 
any  sectional  conflicts  or  other  conflicts  of  a  disturbing  political  nature. 
All  men  were  now  "free  and  equal  before  the  law."  A  period  of  unpre- 
cedented activity  in  capitalistic  circles  set  in.  Steam  and  electricity 
applied  to  machinery  was  employed  in  almost  every  department  of 
industry,  and  compared  with  former  times  fabulous  wealth  was  created. 

Political  parties,  no  longer  divided  in  interest  upon  property  ques- 
tions, all  legislation  was  centered  upon  a  development  of  the  resources  of 
the  country.  To  this  end  vast  tracts  of  goverment  land,  amounting  ta 
many  million  acres,  equalling  in  extent  seven  states  the  size  of  Illinois  were 
donated  as  subsidies  to  the  projectors  of  railways.  The  national  debt, 
incurred  to  prosecute  the  rebellion,  and  amounting  to  three  billion  dollars 
was  capitalized,  by  creating  interest  upon  the  bonds.  Hundreds  of 
millions  were  given  as  bonuses  to  pro})Osed  railways,  steamship  lines,  etc. 
A  protective  tariff  law  was  enacted  which  for  the  past  twenty  years  has 
imposed  a  tax  upon  the  people  amounting  to  one  billion  dollars  annually. 
A  National  Banking  system  was  established  which  gave  control  of  finance 
to  a  banking  monopoly.  By  means  of  these  and  other  laws  capitalist 
combinations,  monopolies,  syndicates,  and  trusts  were  created  and  fos- 
tered, until  they  obtained  absolute  control  of  the  principle  avenues  of 
industry,  commerce  and  trade.     Arbitrary  prices  are  fixed  by  these  com- 


16  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM. 

binations  and  the  consumers — mainly  the  poor — are  compelled  by  their 
necessities  to  pay  whatever  price  is  exacted.  Thus  during  the  past 
twenty-live  years, — since  the  abolition  of  the  chattel-slave  labor  system — 
twenty -five  thousand  millionaires  have  been  created,  who  by  their  combi- 
nations control  and  virtually  own  the  fifty  billion  dollars  estimate  wealth 
of  the  United  States,  while  on  the  other  hand  twenty  million  wage  workers 
have  been  created  whose  poverty  forces  them  into  a  ceaseless  competition 
with  each  other  for  opportunity  to  earn  the  bare  necessities  of  existence. 
What  had,  therefore,  required  generations  to  accomplish  in  Great  Britain 
and  the  continent,  was  achieved  during  the  past  twenty-five  years  in  the 
United  States,  to  wit :  The  practical  destruction  of  the  middle-class  (small 
dealers,  farmers,  manufacturers,  etc.),  and  the  division  of  society  into  two 
classes — the  wage  worker  and  capitalist.  While  the  fabulous  fortunes 
resulting  from  legislation  enacted  in  the  name  of  the  people  were  being 
acquired,  the  people  were  not  conscious  of  the  evil  effects  which  would 
flow  from  those  laws.  Not  until  the  evil  effects  were  felt  were  they  aware 
of  the  slavery  to  which  they  had  been  lawfully  reduced.  The  first  great 
pinch  of  the  laws  was  felt  throughout  the  whole  country  in  the  financial 
panic  of  1873-77,  resulting  in  the  latter  year  in  wide-spread  strikes  of  the 
unemployed  and  poorly  paid  wage  class.  In  response  to  the  demand  for 
information  upon  economic  matters.  Bureaus  of  Labor  were  established  in 
many  States,  as  also  for  the  general  government  at  Washington.  These 
statistics  related  to  operations  and  effects  of  capitalism  in  the  chief 
departments  of  industry  and  trade.  The  absorption  of  the  smaller  indus- 
tries etc.,  etc.,  into  the  great  corporations,  syndicates,  etc.,  was  very  rapid. 
The  National  commercial  agency  (Bradstreet's)  furnished  statistics  showing 
unprecedented  bankruptcies.  The  Agricultural  Bureaus  of  the  various 
States  gave  accounts  of  simular  depressions  in  agriculture.  Illinois,  the 
richest  agricultural  State  in  the  United  States  and  for  that  reason  a 
criterion  for  the  others,  is  shown  by  the  statistics  of  the  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  for  1886  to  have  over  three-fourths  of  its  farms  mortgaged, 
and  that  the  crops  for  the  last  five  years  have  not  paid  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion! Illinois  is  the  greatest  corn  producing  State  in  the  Union  and  the 
statistics  given  by  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  on  that  crop  is  as 
follows : 

For  the  vear  1882  at  a  loss  of Sl,273,571.00 

For  the  year  1883  at  a  loss  of 8,621,440.00 

For  the  year  1884  at  a  loss  of 11,780,554.00 

For  the  year  1885  at  a  loss  of 10,831,701.00 

For  the  year  1886  at  a  loss  of 19,070,209.00 

Total  loss  in  five  years $51,577,475.00 

The  Bureau  also  states  that  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  farms  which 
have  suffered  these  losses  are  mortgaged.  Investigation  shows  the  same 
condition  exists  in  every  State.  Statistics  show  that  the  condition  of  the 
farming  class,  as  a  class,  is  far  worse  than  it  was  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago. 
The  American  farmer  as  a  class  is  enslaved  by  mortgages,  and  rapidily 
drifting  into  peasantry  and  serfdom  agriculture.  Meanwhile  the  stupend- 
ously increasing  aggregation  of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  few  is 
going  on. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM.  17 

•In  manufacture  statistics  it  is  shown  that  while  the  number  of  man- 
ufacturers are  diminishing  from  10  to  30  per  cent  every  year  the  remainder 
are  increasing  their  wealth  enormously,  and  that  while  the  wages  of  labor 
have  been  diminishing  yearly  the  number  of  workers  wanting  work  and 
unable  to  procure  it  have  rapidly  increased.  The  United  States  census 
for  1880,  gives  in  Census  Bulletin  802  elaborate  details  of  capital  invested, 
number  of  persons  employed,  the  amount  of  wages  paid,  value  of  materials 
used,  the  value  of  all  the  establishments  of  manufacturing  industry,  gas 
excepted,  in  each  of  the  States  and  Territories  as  follows : 

The  number  of  industrial  establishments  is  253,840,  having  a  capital  of 
$2,790,223,506.  Of  this  number  New  York  has  42,739,  with  a  capital  of  $514,246,575, 
employing  364,551  males  above  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  137,393  females  above  the 
age  of  fifteen  years.  The  total  amount  paid  in  wages  during  that  year  aggregated 
$298,634,029,  and  the  value  of  the  products  was  $1,080,638,696. 

Pennsylvania  follows  the  Empire  state  with  31,225  workshops,  387,112  em- 
ployes, and  a  capital  of  $447,499,993.  The  value  of  its  products  is  $744,748,045, 
or  $335,890,651  less  than  that  of  New  York.  In  the  northern  states,  including 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Michigan,  there  are 
153,453  places  of  industry,  or  8,982  more  than  in  the  states  of  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  Arkansas  and  Texas. 

Rhode  Island,  the  smallest  State  in  the  Union,  has  2,205  workshops,  which  is 
1,459  more  than  Delaware,  the  next  smallest,  and  only  791  less  than  Texas,  the 
largest  State  in  the  Union.  In  amount  of  capital  involved,  however,  Rhode  Island 
is  $66,330,382  ahead  of  Texas,  and  the  value  of  her  products  is  $104,163,621,  while 
-that  of  Texas  is  only  $20,719,128. 

The  District  of  Columbia,  with  971  establishments  and  $5,552,526  capital,  is 
ahead  of  Florida  and  Colorado  in  the  value  of  its  products  and  in  the  number  of 
workshops.  The  District  employs  5,495  males  above  sixteen  years  of  age,  and 
1,389  females  above  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  1,389  children  and  youths.  The 
establishments  pay  to  these  hands  $33,924,612  in  wages  yearly,  and  the  products 
manufactured  aggregate  $11,882,316,  the  value  of  materials  used  being  $3,365,400. 

Colorado,  the  youngest  State,  which  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1876, 
can  show  but  very  little  increase  in  the  value  of  its  products  over  that  of  the 
District  of  Columbia.  This  State  has  599  establishments  and  a  capital  of 
$4,311,714.  It  employs  4,625  males,  266  females,  156  children,  and  pays  in  wages 
$2,314,427,  or  $1,610,185  less  than  is  paid  for  wages  in  this  District. 

Forming  the  rear  of  this  long  line  of  States  and  Territories  comes  Arizona 
with  66  workshops  and  an  invested  capital  of  $272,600.  There  are  216  men  em- 
ployed in  the  Territory,  which,  added  to  the  two  females  and  the  two  children, 
make  a  total  of  220  persons  actively  engaged  in  industrial  occupations.  The  total 
amount  of  wages  is  $111,180,  while  the  value  of  the  products  from  these  establish- 
ments is  $615,655. 

In  the  253,840  workshops  throughout  the  country,  the  average  number  of 
hands  employed  is  2,738,950.  Of  this  number  2,025,279  are  males,  531,753  females, 
and  181,918  children.  The  total  amount  of  wages  paid  out  during  the  year  is 
$947,919,074,  and  the  value  of  the  products  is  $5,369,667,706. 

The  list  quotes  the  value  of  the  materials  used  in  manufacturing  as  aggre- 
gating $3394,340,029,  which  leaves  a  profit  on  products  of  $1,975,327,677.  When 
the  amount  paid  for  wages  is  deducted  from  this,  there  remains  a  clear  margin 
on  the  figures  quoted  of  $1,027,408,003. 

From  the  statistics  given  above  we  learn  that  the  average  wages  of 
each  wage  worker  amounts  to  $304  per  annum,  and  the  average  annual 
net  profit  on  the  labor  product  of  6ach  wage  -vyorker  is  $374.  The  United 
States  census  for  the  year  1880  contains  tables  which  show  that  the  daily 


18  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAHCHISM. 

average  product  of  eacli  wage  worker  in  manufacturing  industry  is 
valued  at  $10,  and  the  daily  average  wage  at  $1.15.  The  increase  in 
the  quantity  of  wealth  which  a  wage  laborer  can  now  produce  as  com- 
pared to  1 880  is  ascribed  to  the  increased  application  of  machinery  and 
the  increased  sub- division  and  consequent  simplification  of  the  process 
of  production.  To  this  fact  is  also  due  the  diminution  of  the  share 
(wages)  of  their  product,  which  the  workers  now  receive,  as  well  as  the 
increase  of  the  number  of  enforced  idle  since  1880. 

The  United  States  Census  for  1880  gives  the  annual  average  wages  of 
each  laborer  engaged  in  manufacture  at  $304,  and  the  annual  average  net 
profit  on  capital  invested  at  $374.  In  other  words,  each  laborer  produced 
values  amounting  to  $678,  for  which  they  received  $304  in  wages,  the 
remaining  $374  being  the  amount  which  the  owners  of  capital  charged 
them  for  its  use. 

The  wage  system  is  the  foundation  upon  which  the  United  States 
Government,  in  common  with  all  other  governments,  rests.  This  founda- 
tion was  laid  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787,  as  described  by 
John  Adams  when  he  said:  "What  matters  it  whether  you  give  the  food 
and  clothes  to  the  slave  direct,  or  whether  you  just  give  him  enough  in 
wages  to  purchase  the  same  ?"  Nearly  one  hundred  y^ars  later  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States  appealed  to  armed  revolution;  the  Constitution  was 
set  aside  and  millions  of  property  and  nearly  a  million  human  lives  were 
sacrificed  in  order  to  place  the  chattel  slave  upon  the  same  industrial 
plane  as  the  wage  worker.  Before  the  inauguration  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion  offers  were  made  to  the  slaveholders  to  pay  them  $1,000  a 
piece  for  their  slaves,  as  being  far  cheaper  and  more  humane  than  to  em- 
broil the  nation  in  civil  war.  That  price  was  indignantly  rejected,  as  be- 
ing too  small;  besides  the  slaveholders  held  that  chattel  slavery  was  a 
"divine  institution,"  and  it  would,  therefore,  be  sacrilege  to  attempt  its 
abolition.  In  1880,  sixteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  rebellion,  the 
United  States  Census  states  there  was  invested  in  the  woolen  industries 
of  the  country  capital  amounting  to  $159,000,000,  and  the  number  of  wage 
workers  employed  100,000.  The  capital  represented  an  average  invest- 
ment of  $995  to  each  wage  laborer.  The  cost  of  raw  material  was 
$164,000,000;  the  value  of  manufactured  material  was  placed  at  $267,- 
000,000.  The  increased  value  of  the  manufactured  material  over  the  raw 
is  placed  at  $107,000,000.  That  upon  $995  invested,  an  annual  profit  of 
$343  was  obtained,  while  the  average  annual  wages  of  each  operative  was 
$293,  or  fifty  dollars  less  than  the  income  derived  from  the  $995. 

Chattel  slaves  before  the  war  Were  valued  at  $1,000  apiece.  Sixteen 
years  after  the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery,  wage  workers  employed  in 
manufactures  in  John  Adams'  State  (Massachusetts)  were  worth,  commer- 
cially, $850,  or  $150  less  than  the  former  chattel  slave. 

These  statistics  prove  the  claim  made  by  the  supporters  of  the  wage 
system  of  labor  that  wage  labor  is  cheaper  than  chattel  labor.  They 
demonstrate  the  economic  law  of  competition,  which  is  the  rule  of  the 
cheapest.  The  propertyless  class — the  wage  workers — are  by  competition 
forced  to  sell  their  labor— themselves — to  the  lowest  bidder,  or  starve. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  19 


CHAPTER    III. 

Capitalism. — Its  Development  in  the  United  States. — Continued. 


With  the  close  of  the  rebellion  of  1861,  what  is  now  known  as  the 
labor  movement,  began  to  assume  large  proportions.  Not  until  now  was 
there  a  very  numerous  and  stationary  wage  class.  In  consequence,  that 
state  of  affairs  predicted  by  Lord  Macauley,  and  quoted  in  our  opening  chap- 
ter, began  to  appear.  Trades  unions,  labor  imions,  etc.,  composed  of  wage 
laboreis  had  heretofore  existed  in  small  numbers,  but  were  now  rapidly 
formed  as  production  in  mass  was  increasingly  developed.  Strikes  began 
to  bo  frequently  resorted  to  in  order  to  prevent  a  reduction  or  to  cause  an 
increase  of  wages.  The  first  national  movement  of  organized  labor  was 
the  effort  made  to  inaugurate  the  eight -hour  system  throughout  the 
United  States  in  LSGS.     That  attempt  was  defeated. 

The  effort  to  introduce  the  eight-hour  system  has  been  made  repeat- 
edly since.,  sometimes  by  isolated  trades  unions,  at  other  times  by  national 
or  international  unions,  and  lastly  by  the  Federated  Trades'  Unions  of  th^ 
United  States  and  Canada.  This  latter  body,  representing  4(X),000  organ- 
ized workmen,  met  in  Chicago,  in  1884,  in  what  they  styled  an  "Interna- 
tional Congress  of  Organized  Labor,"  and  fixed  upon  a  date.  May  1,  1886, 
to  inaugurate  the  eight-hour  system.  The  organization  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  in  1869  had  increased  its  membership  to  400,000  in  1884.  One  of 
the  principal  objects  of  this  organization  was  the  establishment  of  the 
eight-hour  system  of  labor.  At  this  date,  1884,  a  million  organized  wage- 
workers  in  the  United  States  considered  the  establishment  of  the  eight- 
hour  system  one  of  the  main  objects  of  their  organization.  The  agitation 
for  a  reduction  of  the  houi's  of  labor  culminated  in  the  strike  of  360,000 
men  on  May  1,  1886.  In  Chicago,  the  center  of  the  eight-hour  move- 
ment, over  40,000  workingmen  went  on  a  strike  for  the  eight-hour  work- 
day. On  May  8  some  of  the  strikers  were  fired  on  by  the  police,  killing 
one  and  wounding  several.  On  May  4  workingmen  held  an  indignation 
meeting  which  was  broken  up  by  the  police,  when  a  dynamite  bomb  was 
thrown,  which  killed  seven  ])olicemen  and  wounded  fifty. 

The  effort  to  inaugurate  the  eight-hour  work-day  again  proved  a 
failure.  The*  jnhilosophy  of  the  eight-hour  movement,  defined  by  the  Bos- 
ton Eight-Hour  League,  is  as  follows : 

"Resolved,  That  poverty  is  the  great  fact  with  which  the  labor  movemen* 
deals; 

"That  co-operation  in  labor  is  the  final  result  to  be  obtained; 

"  That  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  is  the  first  step  in  labor- reform;  and 
that  the  emancix)ation  of  labor  from  the  slavery  and  ignorance  of  poverty  solves- 
all  the  problems  that  now  most  disturb  and  perplex  mankind. 

"  Tliat  oiglit  hours  do  not  mean  less  wages; 


20  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

"That  men  are  never  paid,  as  a  rule,  according  to  what  they  earn,  but  accord- 
ing to  the  average  cost  of  living; 

"  That  in  the  long  run — within  certain  limits— Zess  hours  means  more  pay — 
whether  they  work  by  the  day  or  by  the  piece; 

''  That  reducing  the  hours  increases  the  purchasing  power  of  wages  as  well 
as  the  amount  of  wealth  produced; 

"  That  dear  men  mean  cheap  productions,  and  cheap  men  mean  dear  pro- 
ductions; 

"  That  six  cents  a  day  in  China  is  dearest,  and  three  dollars  a  day  in  America 
is  cheapest; 

"  That  the  moral  causes  that  have  made  three  dollars  a  day  cheaper  than  six 
cents  a  day  will  make  higher  wages  still  cheaper; 

"  That  less  hours  mean  reducing  the  profits  and  fortunes  that  are  made  on 
labor  and  its  results; 

"  More  knowledge  and  more  capital  for  the  laborer;  tho  wages  system  grad- 
ually disappearing  through  higher  wages; 

"Less  poor  people  to  borrow  money,  and  less  wealthy  ones  to  lend  it,  and  a 
natural  decline  in  the  rates  of  interest  on  money ; 

"More  idlers  w^orking,  and  more  workers  thinking;  the  motives  to  fraud  re- 
duced, and  fewer  calls  for  special  legislation; 

"  Women's  wages  increased,  her  household  labor  reduced,  better  opportuni- 
ties for  thought  and  action,  and  the  creation  of  motives  strong  enough  to  secure 
the  ballot; 

"  Beaching  the  great  causes  of  intemperance — extreme  wealth  and  extreme 
poverty; 

"  And  the  salvation  of  Republican  institutions; 

"  That  whether  national  banks  are  abolished  or  bonds  are  taxed,  or  w^hether 
taxes  or  tariffs  are  high  or  low,  or  w  hether  greenbacks  or  gold,  or  any  t?ystem  of 
finance  proposed  is  adopted,  or  a  single  tax  on  land,  or  civil  service,  or  one  term 
for  president  shall  prevail,  are  not  lahorer^s  questions,  because  they  have  no  ap- 
preciable relation  to  the  wage-system,  through  which  the  wage  classes  secure  all 
that  they  can  ever  obtain  of  the  world's  wealth  until  they  become  sufficiently 
wealthy  and  intelligent  to  co-operate  in  its  production;  and  whether  the  masses 
"have  anything  to  choose  between  a  democrat,  or  republican,  or  other  candidate 
turns  entirely  upon  the  question  which  one  of  the  candidates  will  be  most  likely 
to  secure  the  legislation  for  reduced  hours  of  labor,  as  well  as  the  enforcement 
upon  all  government  works  of  the  law  already  enacted. 

''''Resolved,  That  the  factory  system  of  our  country  that  employs  tens  of 
thousands  of  women  and  children  eleven  and  twelve  hours  a  day;  that  owns  or 
contiols  in  its  own  selfish  interest  the  pulpit  and  the  press;  that  prevent  the 
operative  classes  from  making  themselves  felt  in  behalf  of  less  hours,  through  a 
remorseless  exercise  of  the  power  of  discharge;  that  is  rearing  a  population  of 
children  and  youth  whose  sickly  appearance  and  scanty  or  utterly  neglected 
schooling,  is  proving  year  by  year  that  the  "  lords  of  the  loom  and  the  lords  of 
the  lash  were  natural  allies  in  the  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery." 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  21 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Capitalism — Its  Origin  and  Development  in  Europe. 


The  wage  system  of  labor  is  a  despotism  It  is  coercive  and  arbi- 
trary. It  compels  the  wage-worker,  under  a  penalty  of  hunger,  misery 
and  distress  of  wife  and  children  to  obey  the  dictation  of  the  employer. 
The  individuality  and  personal  libei-ty  of  the  wage-worker,  and  those 
dependent  upon  him  is  destroyed  by  the  wage -system.  A  republican 
form  of  government  does  not  alter  the  class  servitude  of  the  wage-worker. 
While  governments  are  necessarily  despotic — they  may  difPer  in  degree. 
But  all  governments  based  upon  the  wage-labor  system  are  essentially 
the  same.  The  government  of  the  United  States,  based  upon  the  wage- 
labor  system,  does  not,  and  cannot  guarantee  the  inalienable  right  of  the 
wage-workers  to  "life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  This  fact 
is  more  apparent  each  day.  Under  the  republic,  the  politician  is  a  mere 
spoils -hunter.  Bribery,  intimidation  and  hypocricy  is  practiced  upon  the 
poor  and  ignorant  voter,  who  is  given  a  choice  between  capitalist  candi-' 
dates  and  measures.  Halls  of  legislation  are  mere  debating  clubs  of  the 
rich — the  propertied  class — where  legislation  has  for  its  sole  object,  the 
adjustment  of  the  special,  and  sometimes  conflicting,  interest  of  this  class. 

The  judicial  and  executive  departments  of  a  republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment are  the  officers  or  committees  who  administer  the  laws  of  the 
propertied  class.  The  wage-class  are  by  their  economic  dependence  kept 
in  ignorance  and  fear.  They  vote,  but  vote  as  a  class  only  upon  capitalist 
questions.  The  government  itself  is  the  instrument  of  capitalism  to  per- 
petuate the  wage -system.  Within  this  circle  of  government  the  votes  of 
the  workers  have  been  unable  to  effect  any  amelioration  of  their  condition. 
This  is  the  experience  of  one  hundred  years  of  representative  government 
in  the  United  States,  with-  the  increase  of  population  from  3,500,000  in 
1776  to  65,000,000  in  1886  has  also  developed  the  wage-system  upon 
which  the  government  was  founded-  One  hundred  years'  experience 
proves,  that  those  who  control  the  industries  of  the  country — control  its 
votes;  that  wealth  votes;  that  poverty  cannot  vote;  that  citizens  who  must 
sell  their  labor  or  starve,  will  sell  their  votes  when  the  same  alternative 
is  presented.  The  working-class  of  the  United  States  have  been  deluded 
for  one  hundred  years,  with  the  belief  that  they  possessed  political  sov- 
ereignty and  law-making  powers.  They  have  believed  that  they  could 
make  laws  in  their  own  behalf,  although  they  have  not  made  or  compelled 
the  enforcement  of  any  laws  outside  of  capitalist  interests.  The  wage- 
system  of  labor  subjects  the  man  of  labor  to  the  control  of  the  monopo- 
lizers of  the  means  of  labor — the  resources  of  life.  Social  miser^%  mental 
degredation  and  political  dependence  is  the  state  of  those  who  are 
deprived  of  the  means  of  existence.     Political  liberty  is  possessed  by  those 


22  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

only  who  also  possess  economic  liberty.  The  wage -system  is  the  economic 
servitude  of  the  workers.  Four  hundred  years  ago,  the  wage-system  in 
Europe  began  to  gradually  supercede  the  surf  age- system  of  labor.  Previ- 
ous to  the  fourteenth  century,  a  system  of  vassalage  existed  in  all  nations, 
except  a  few  guilds  or  trades  in  the  larger  cities.  Under  vassalage,  the 
proprietor  of  an  estate  was  owner  of  the  men,  women  and  children  upon 
that  estate,  and  when  the  estate  was  sold,  these  men,  women  and  children 
were  inventoried  and  sold  to  the  purchaser.  The  law,  defined  the  status 
of  the  vassal  or  serf  as  a  fixture  to  the  soil.  The  law  was  that  they 
could  not  be  parted  from  each  other,  or  removed  from  the  estate.  In  this 
respect  vassalage  differed  from  chattel  slave  labor.  As  at  the  present 
time,  so  in  the  past,  the  history  of  society  is  the  history  of  class  strug- 
gles. Freemen  and  slaves,  patricians  and  plebeians,  nobles  and  serfs, 
guild  members  and  journeymen;  in  other  words,  the  oppressors  and 
oppressed  have  engaged  each  other  in  this  class -struggle.  These  conflicts 
have  sometimes  been  open,  at  other  times  concealed,  but  never  ceasing. 
This  continuous  struggle  has  invariably  terminated  in  a  revolutionary  alter- 
ation of  the  social  system,  or  in  the  total  destruction  of  the  contending 
classes. 

In  earlier  historical  epochs,  we  find  almost  everywhere  a  minute 
division  and  subdivision  of  society  into  classes  or  castes — a  variety  of 
grades  in  social  life.  In  ancient  Rome  were  the  partricians,  knights, 
plebeians,  slaves ;  in  Mediaeval  Europe,  feudal  lords,  vassals,  burghers  jour- 
neymen, serfs ;  and  in  each  of  these  classes  there  were  again  grades  and 
distinctions. 

Modern  Bourgeois  (capitalist)  society,  which  arose  fi'om  the  ruins 
ef  the  feudal  system  has  not  wiped  out  the  antagonism  of  classes.  New 
classes,  new  conditions  of  oppression,  new  modes  and  forms  of  carrying 
on  the  struggle,  have  been  substituted  for  the  old  ones.  The  characteristic 
of  our  epoch — the  epoch  of  the  Bourgeoisie,  or  middle  class — is  that  the 
struggle  between  the  various  social  classes  has  been  reduced  to  its  simplest 
form.  Society  tends  more  and  more  to  be  divided  into  two  great  hostile 
classes — to- wit:  The  Bourgeoisie  and  the  Proletariat.  This  class  strug- 
gle arises  from  and  is  inherent  in  the  wage-system. 

How  that  system  operates  in  minutia,  in  detail;  how  it  effects  the 
laborer  and  the  capitalist  has  been  clearly  and  scientifically  formulated 
by  Karl  Marx  in  his  work  entitled  "Capital,"  a  chapter  from  which  is 
here  quoted. 

Wage -Labor  and  Capital. — What  are  Wages  and  How  are  They 

Determined  ?' 

"  If  we  were  to  ask  the  laborers,  '  How  much  wages  do  you  get  ?'  one 
would  reply,  '  I  get  a  couple  of  shillings  a  day  from  my  employer  ;'  an- 
other, '  I  get  half-a-crown,'  and  so  on.  According  to  the  different  trades 
tiO  which  they  belong,  they  would  name  different  sums  of  money  which 
they  receive  from  their  particular  employers,  either  for  working  for  a 
certain  length  of  time,  or  for  performing  a  certain  piece  of  work  ;  for  ex- 
ample, either  for  weaving  an  ell  of  cloth,  or  for  setting  up  a  certain 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  23 

amount  of  type.  But  in  spite  of  this  difference  in  their  statements  there 
is  one  point  in  which  they  would  all  agree;  their  wages  are  the  amount  of 
money  which  their  employer  pays  them  either  for  working  a  certain  length 
of  time,  or  for  a  certain  amount  of  work  done. 

"  Thus  their  employer  buys  their  work  for  money.  For  money  they 
sell  their  work  to  him.  With  the  same  sum  for  which  the  employer  has 
bought  their  work,  as  for  instance,  with  a  couple  of  shillings,  he  might 
have  bought  four  pounds  of  sugar,  or  a  proportionate  amount  of  any  other 
wares.  The  two  shillings  with  which  he  buys  the  four  pounds  of  sugar, 
are  the  price  of  four  pounds  of  sugar.  The  two  shillings  with  which  he 
buys  labor  for  twelve  hours,  are  the  price  of  twelve  hours'  work.  Work 
is  therefore  as  much  a  commodity  as  sugar,  neither  more  nor  less,  only 
they  measure  the  former  by  the  clock,  the  latter  by  the  scales. 

''  The  laborers  exchange  their  own  commodity  with  their  employers' 
— work  for  money ;  and  this  exchange  takes  place  according  to  a  fixed  pro- 
portion. So  much  money  for  so  much  work.  For  twelve  hours'  weaving, 
two  shillings.  And  do  not  these  two  shillings  represent  two  shillings  worth 
of  all  other  commodities  ?  Thus  the  laborer  has,  in  fact,  exchanged  his 
own  commodity — work,  with  all  kinds  of  other  commodities,  and  that  in  a 
fixed  proportion.  His  employer  in  giving  him  two  shillings,  has  given 
him  so  much  meat,  so  much  clothing,  so  much  fuel,  light,  and  so  on,  in 
exchange  for  his  day's  work.  The  two  shillings,  therefore,  express  the 
proportion  in  which  his  work  is  exchanged  with  other  commodities — the 
exchange -value  of  his  work;  and  the  exchange-value  of  any  commodity 
expressed  in  money  is  called  its  price.  Wage  is,  therefore,  only  another 
name  for  the  price  of  work — for  the  price  of  this  peculiar  piece  of  pro- 
perty which  can  have  no  local  habitation  at  all  except  in  human  flesh  and 
blood. 

"  Take  the  case  of  any  workman,  a  weaver  for  instance.  The  employer 
supplies  him  with  thread  and  loom.  The  weaver  sets  to  work,  and  the 
thread  is  turned  into  cloth.  The  employer  takes  possession  of  the  cloth 
and  sells  it,  say  for  twenty  shillings.  Does  the  weaver  receive  as  wages  a 
share  in  the  cloth — in  the  twenty  shillings — in  the  product  of  his  labor? 
By  no  means.  The  weaver  receives  his  wages  long  before  the  product  is 
sold.  The  emj)loyer  does  not,  therefore,  pay  his  wages  with  the  money 
he  will  get  for  the  cloth,  but  with  money  previously  provided.  Loom  and 
thread  are  not  the  weaver's  product,  since  they  are  supplied  by  the  em- 
ployer, and  no  more  are  the  commodities  which  he  receives  in  exchange 
for  his  own  commodity,  or  in  other  words  for  his  work.  It  is  possible 
that  the  employer  finds  no  purchaser  for  his  cloth.  It  may  be  that  by  its 
sale  he  does  not  recover  even  the  wages  he  has  paid.  It  may  be  that  in 
comparison  with  the  weaver's  wages  he  made  a  great  bargain  by  its  sale.  But 
all  this  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  weaver.  The  employer  pur- 
chases the  weaver's  labor  with  a  part  of  his  available  property—  of  his 
capital  -  in  exactly  the  same-  way  as  he  has  with  another  part  of  his  pro- 
perty bought  the  raw  material — the  thread — and  the  instrument  of  labor 
— the  loom.  As  soon  as  he  has  made  these  jnirchases— and  he  reckons 
among  them  the  ]nirchase  of  the  labor  necessary  to  the  production  of  the 
cloth  -  ho  proceeds  to  produce  it  by   means  of  the  raw  material  and  the 


24  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHISM. 

instruments  which  belong  to  him.  Among  these  last  is,  of  course,  reckon- 
ed our  worthy  weaver,  who  has  as  little  share  in  the  product,  or  in  the 
price  of  the  product,  as  the  loom  itself. 

"  Wages,  therefore,  are  not  the  worker's  share  of  the  commodities 
which  he  has  produced.  Wages  are  the  share  of  commodities  previously 
produced,  with  which  the  employer  purchases  a  certain  amount  of  pro- 
ductive labor. 

"  Labor  is,  therefore,  a  commodity  which  its  owner,  the  wage  worker, 
sells  to  capital.     Why  does  he  sell  it  ?     In  order  to  live. 

"  But  labor  is  the  peculiar  expression  of  the  energy  of  the  laborer's 
life.  And  this  energy  he  sells  to  another  party,  in  order  to  secure  for 
himself  the  means  of  living.  For  him,  therefore,  his  energy  is  nothing  but 
a  means  of  ensuring  his  own  existence.  He  works  to  live.  He  does  not 
count  the  work  itself  as  a  part  of  his  life,  rather  is  it  a  sacrifice  of  his  life. 
It  is  a  commodity  which  he  has  made  over  to  another  party.  Neither  is. 
its  product  the  aim  of  his  activity.  What  he  produces  for  himself  is 
not  the  silk  he  weaves,  nor  the  palace  that  he  builds,  nor  the  gold  that  he 
digs  from  out  the  mine.  What  he  produces  for  himself  is  his  wage;  and 
silk,  gold,  and  palace  are  transformed  for  him  into  a  certain  quantity  of 
means  of  existence — a  cotton  shirt,  some  copper  coins,  and  a  lodging  in  a 
cellar.  And  what  of  the  laborer,  who  for  twelve  hours  weaves,  spins, 
bores,  turns,  builds,  shovels,  breaks  stones,  carries  loads,  and  so  on  ?  I)oe& 
his  twelve  hours'  weaving,  spinning,  boring,  turning,  building,  shoveling, 
and  stone -breaking  represent  the  active  expression  of  his  life  ?  On  the 
contrary.  Life  begins  for  him  exactly  where  this  activity  of  his  ceases 
• — at  his  meals,  on  the  public-house  bench,  in  his  bed.  His  twelve  hours' 
work  has  no  meaning  for  him  as  weaving,  spinning,  boring,  etc.,  but  only 
as  earnings  whereby  he  may  obtain  his  meals,  his  seat  in  the  public- 
house,  his  bed.  If  the  silkworm's  object  in  spinning  were  to  prolong  its 
existence  as  a  caterpillar,  it  would  be  a  perfect  example  of  a  wage- 
worker. 

"  Labor  was  not  always  a  commodity.  Labor  was  not  always  wage- 
work,  that  is,  a  marketable  commodity  The  slave  does  not  sell  his  labor 
to  the  slave-owner.  The  slave  along  with  his  labor  is  sold  once  for  all  to 
his  owner.  He  is  a  commodity  which  can  pass  from  the  hand  of  one 
owner  to  that  of  another.  He  himself  is  a  commodity,  but  his  labor  is 
not  his  commodity.  The  serf  sells  only  a  portion  of  his  labor.  He  does 
not  receive  his  wages  from  the  owner  of  the  soil;  rather  the  owner  of 
the  soil  receives  a  tribute  from  him.  The  serf  belongs  to  the  soil,  and  to 
the  lord  of  the  soil  he  brings  its  fruits.  The  free  laborer,  on  the  other 
hand,  sells  himself,  and  that  by  fractions.  From  day  to  day  he  sells  by 
auction  eight,  ten,  twelve,  fifteen  hours  of  his  life  to  the  highest  bidder — 
to  the  owner  of  the  raw  material,  the  instruments  of  work,  and  the  means 
of  life ;  that  is,  to  the  employer.  The  laborer  himself  belongs  neither  to  an 
owner  nor  to  the  soil ;  but  eight,  ten,  twelve,  fifteen  hours  of  his  daily  life 
belong  to  the  man  who  buys  them.  The  laborer  leaves  the  employer  ta 
whom  he  has  hired  himself  whenever  he  pleases ;  and  the  employer  dis- 
charges him  whenever  he  thinks  fit;  either  as  soon  as  he  ceases  to  make  a 
profit  out  of  him,  or  fails  to  get  so  high  a  profit  as  he  requires.     But  the 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  25 

laborer,  whose  only  source  of  earnings  is  the  sale  of  his  labor,  cannot 
leave  the  whole  class  of  its  purchasers,  that  is,  the  capitalist  class,  without 
renouncing  his  own  existence.  He  does  not  belong  to  this  or  that  particu- 
lar employer,  but  he  does  belong  to  the  employing  class ;  and  more  than 
that,  it  is  his  business  to  find  an  employer;  that  is,  among  this  employing 
class,  it  is  his  business  to  discover  his  own  particular  purchases. 

"  Before  going  more  closely  into  the  relations  between  capital  and 
wage-work,  it  will  be  well  to  give  a  brief  survey  of  those  general  relations 
which  are  taken  into  consideration  in  determining  the  amount  of  wages. 

"As  we  have  seen,  wages  are  the  price  of  a  certain  commodity — 
labor.  Wages  are  thus  determined  by  the  same  law  which  regulates  the 
price  of  any  other  commodity. 

"  Thereupon  the  (question  arises,  how  is  the  price  of  a  commodity 
determined  ? 

"  By  what  means  is  the  price  of  a  commodity  determined  f 

"  By  means  of  competition  between  buyers  and  sellers,  and  the  rela- 
tion between  supply  and  demand — offer  and  desire.  And  this  competition 
by  which  the  price  of  an  article  is  fixed  is  three-fold. 

"The  same  commodity  is  offered  in  the  market  by  various  sellers. 
Whoever  offers  the  greatest  advantage  to  purchasers  is  certain  to  drive- 
the  other  sellers  off  the  field,  and  secure  for  himself  the  greatest  sale. 
The  sellers,  therefore,  fight  for  the  sale  and  the  market  among  themselves. 
Everj^one  of  them  wants  to  sell,  and  does  his  best  to  sell  much,  and  if  pos- 
sible to  become  the  only  seller.  Therefore  each  outbids  the  other  in 
cheapness,  and  a  competition  takes  place  among  the  sellers  which  lowers- 
the  price  of  the  goods  they  offer. 

"  But  a  competition  also  goes  on  among  the  purchasers,  which  on 
their  side  raises  the  price  of  the  goods  offered. 

"Finally  there  arises  a  competition  between  buyers  and  sellers;  the 
one  set  wants  to  buy  as  cheap  as  possible,  the  other  to  sell  as  dear  as  pos- 
sible. The  result  of  this  competition  between  buyers  and  sellers  will  de- 
pend upon  the  relations  of  the  two  previous  aspects  of  the  competition; 
that  is,  upon  whether  the  competition  in  the  ranks  of  the  buyers  or  that 
in  those  of  the  sellers  is  the  keener.  Business  thus  leads  two  opposing 
armies  into  the  field,  and  each  of  them  again  presents  the  aspect  of  a 
battle  in  its  own  ranks  between  its  own  soldiers.  That  army  whose  troops 
are  least  mauled  by  one  another  carries  off  the  victory  over  the  opposing^ 
host. 

"  Let  us  suppose  that  there  are  a  hundred  bales  of  cotton  in  the  mar- 
ket, and  at  the  same  time  buyers  in  want  of  a  thousand  bales.  In  this 
case  the  demand  is  greater  than  the  supply.  The  competition  between 
the  buyers  will  therefore  be  intense;  each  of  them  will  do  his  best  to  get 
hold  of  all  the  hundred  bales  of  cotton.  This  example  is  no  arbitrary 
supposition.  In  the  history  of  the  trade  we  have  experienced  periods  of 
failure  of  the  cotton  plant,  when  particular  companies  of  capitalists  have 
endeavored  to  purchase,  not  only  a  hundred  bales  of  cotton,  but  the  whole 
stock  of  cotton  in  the  world.  Therefore  in  the  case  supposed  each  buyer 
will  try  to  beat  the  others  out  of  the  field  by  offering  a  proportionately 
higher  price  for  the  cotton.     The  cotton -sellers,  perceiving  the  troops  of 


26  THE    PHIHLOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

the  hostile  host  in  violent  combat  with  one  another,  and  being  perfectly 
secure  as  to  the  sale  of  all  their  hundred  bales,  will  take  very  good  care 
not  to  begin  squabbling  among  themselves  in  order  to  depress  the  price 
at  the  very  moment  when  their  adversaries  are  emulating  each  other  in 
the  process  of  screwing  it  higher  up.  Peace  is  therefore  suddenly  pro- 
claimed in  the  army  of  the  sellers.  They  present  a  united  front  to  the 
purchaser,  and  fold  their  arms  in  philosophic  content;  and  their  claims 
would  be  absolutely  boundless  if  it  were  not  that  the  offers  of  even  the 
most  pressing  and  eager  of  the  buyers  miist  always  have  some  definite 
limit. 

''Thus  if  the  supply  of  a  commodity  is  not  so  great  as  the  demand  for 
it,  the  competition  between  the  buyers  waxes.  Result:  A  more  or  less 
important  rise  in  the  price  of  goods. 

"As  a  rule  the  converse  case  is  of  commoner  occurrence,  producing  an 
opposite  result.  Large  excess  of  supply  over  demand;  desperate  compe- 
tition among  the  sellers ;  dearth  of  purchasers ;  forced  sale  of  goods  dirt 
cheap. 

"But  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  rise  and  fall  in  prices  ?  What  is  the 
meaning  of  higher  price  or  lower  price  ?  A  grain  of  sand  is  high  when 
examined  through  a  microscope,  and  a  tower  is  low  when  compared  with 
a  mountain.  And  if  price  is  determined  by  the  relation  between  supply 
and  demand,  how  is  the  relation  between  supply  and  demand  itself 
determined  ? 

"Let  us  turn  to  the  first  worthy  citizen  we  meet.  He  will  not  take 
an  instant  to  consider,  but  like  a  second  Alexander  the  Great  will  cut  the 
metaphysical  knot  by  the  help  of  his  multiplication  table.  'If  the  pro- 
duction of  the  goods  which  I  sell,'  he  will  tell  us,  'has  cost  me  £100, 
and  I  get  £110  by  their  sale — within  the  year,  you  understand — that's 
what  I  call  a  sound,  honest,  reasonable  profit.  But  if  I  make  £120  or 
£130  by  the  sale,  that  is  a  higher  profit;  and  if  I  were  to  get  a  good  £200, 
that  would  be  an  exceptional,  an  enormous  profit.'  What  is  it  then  that 
serves  our  citizen  as  the  measure  of  his  profit  ?  The  cost  of  production  of 
his  goods.  If  he  receives  in  exchange  for  them  an  amount  of  other  goods 
whose  production  has  cost  less,  he  has  lost  by  his  bargain.  If  he  receives 
an  amount  whose  production  has  cost  more,  he  has  gained.  And  he 
reckons  the  rise  and  fall  of  his  profit  by  the  number  of  degrees  at  which 
it  stands  with  reference  to  his  zero — the  cost  of  production. 

"We  have  now  seen  how  the  changing  proportion  between  supply  and 
demand  produces  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices,  making  them  at  one  time  high, 
at  another  low.  If  through  failure  in  the  supply,  or  exceptional  increase 
in  the  demand,  an  important  rise  in  the  price  of  a  commodity  takes  place, 
then  the  price  of  another  commodity  must  have  fallen;  for,  of  course,  the 
price  of  a  commodity  only  expresses  in  money  the  proportion  in  which 
other  commodities  can  be  exchanged  with  it.  For  instance,  if  the  price 
of  a  yard  of  silk  rises  from  five  to  six  shillings,  the  price  of  silver  has  fal- 
len in  comparison  with  silk;  and  in  the  same  way  the  price  of  all  other 
commodities  which  remain  at  their  old  prices  has  fallen  if  compared  with 
silk.  We  have  to  give  a  larger  quantity  of  them  in  exchange  in  order  to 
obtain  the  same  quantity  of  silk.     And  what  is  the  result  of  a  rise  in  the 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  27 

price  of  a  commodity?  A  mass  of  cai)ital  is  thrown  into  that  flourishing 
branch  of  business,  and  this  immigration  of  capital  into  the  province  of 
the  privileged  business  will  last  until  the  ordinary  level  of  profits  is  at- 
tained; or  rather,  until  the  price  of  the  products  sinks  through  overpro- 
duction. 

"Conversely,  if  the  price  of  a  commodity  falls  below  the  cost  of  its 
production,  capital  will  be  withdrawn  from  the  production  of  this  com- 
modity. Except  in  the  case  of  a  branch  of  industry  which  has  become 
obsolete  and  is  therefore  doomed  to  disappear,  the  result  of  this  flight  of 
capital  will  be  that  the  production  of  this  commodity,  and  therefore  its 
supply,  will  continually  dwindle  until  it  corresponds  to  the  demand;  and 
thus  its  price  rises  again  to  the  level  of  the  cost  of  its  production;  or 
rather,  until  the  supply  has  fallen  below  the  demand;  that  is,  until  its 
price  has  again  risen  above  its  cost  of  production;  for  the  price  of  any 
commodity  is  always  either  above  or  below  its  cost  of  production. 

"We  see  then  how  it  is  that  capital  is  always  immigrating  and  emi- 
grating, from  the  province  of  one  industry  into  that  of  another.  It  is 
high  prices  that  bring  about  an  excessive  immigration,  and  low  prices  an 
excess  of  emigration. 

"  We  might  show  from  another  point  of  view  how  not  only  the  sup- 
ply, but  also  the  demand  is  determined  by  the  cost  of  production;  but 
this  would  lead  us  too  far  from  our  present  subject. 

"We  have  just  seen  how  the  fluctuations  of  supply  and  demand 
always  reduce  the  price  of  a  commodity  to  its  cost  of  production.  It  is 
true  that  the  precise  price  of  a  commodity  is  always  either  above  or  below 
its  cost  of  production;  but  the  rise  and  fall  reciprocally  balance  each  other, 
so  within  a  certain  period,  if  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  business  are  reckoned 
Tip  together,  commodities  are  exchanged  with  one  another  in  accordance 
with  their  cost  of  production;  and  thus  their  cost  of  production  deter- 
mines their  price. 

"  The  determination  of  price  by  cost  of  production  is  not  to  be  tmder- 
stood  in  the  sense  of  the  economists.  The  economists  declare  that  the 
average  price  of  commodities  is  equal  to  the  cost  of  production;  this, 
according  to  them,  is  a  law.  The  anarchical  movements  in  which  the  rise  is 
compensated  by  the  fall,  and  the  fall  by  the  rise,  they  ascribe  to  chance. 
With  just  as  good  a  right  as  this,  which  the  other  economists  assume,  we 
might  consider  the  fluctuations  as  the  law,  and  ascribe  the  fixing  of  price 
by  cost  of  production  to  chance.  But  if  we  look  closely,  we  see  that  it  is 
precisely  these  fluctuations,  although  they  bring  the  most  terrible  desola- 
tion in  their  train  and  shake  the  fabric  of  bourgeois  society  like  earth- 
quakes, it  is  precisely  these  fluctuations  which  in  their  course  determine 
price  by  cost  of  production.  In  the  totality  of  this  disorderly  movement 
is  to  be  foiuid  its  disorder.  Throughout  these  alternating  movements,  in 
the  course  of  this  industrial  anai'chy,  competition,  as  it  were,  cancels  one 
excess  by  mean^  of  another. 

"  We  gather,  therefore,  that  the  price  of  a  commodity  is  detennined 
by  its  cost,  of  production,  in  such  manner  that  the  periods  in  which  the 
price  of  this  commodity  rises  above  its  cost  of  production  are  compensated 
by  the  periods  in  which  it  sinks  below  this  cost,  and  conversely.     Of  course 


2S 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 


this  does  not  hold  good  for  one  single  particular  product  of  an  industry, 
but  only  for  that  entire  branch  of  industry.  So  also  it  does  not  hold  good 
for  a  particular  manufacturer,  but  only  for  the  entire  industrial  class. 

"The  determination  of  price  by  cost  of  production  is  the  same  thing 
as  its  determination  by  the  duration  of  the  labor  which  is  required 
for  the  manufacture  of  a  commodity;  for  cost  of  production  may  be 
divided  into  (1)  raw  material  and  implements,  that  is,  products  of  industry 
whose  manufacture  has  cost  a  certain  number  of  days'  work,  and  which 
therefore  represents  a  certain  duration  of  labor,  and  (2)  actual  labor, 
which  is  measured  by  its  duration. 

"Now  the  same  general  laws,  which  universally  regulate  the  j)rice  of 
commodities,  regulate,  of  course,  wages,  the  price  of  labor. 

"Wages  will  rise  and  fall  in  accordance  with  the  proportion  between 
demand  and  supply,  that  is,  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  of  the  com- 
petition between  capitalists  as  buyers,  and  laborers  as  sellers  of  labor. 
The  fluctuations  of  wages  correspond  in  general  with  the  fluctuations  in 
the  price  of  commodities.  Within  these  fluctuations  the  price  of  labor 
is  regulated  by  its  cost  of  production,  that  is,  by  the  duration  of  labor 
which  is  required  in  order  to  produce  this  commodity,  labor. 

"Now  what  is  the  cost  of  production  of  labor  itself? 

"It  is  the  cost  required  for  the  production  of  a  laborer  and  for  his. 
maintenance  as  a  laborer. 

"The  shorter  the  time  requisite  for  instruction  in  any  labor,  the  less 
is  the  laborer's  cost  of  production,  and  the  lower  are  his  wages,  the  price 
of  his  work.  In  those  branches  of  industries  which  scarcely  require  any 
period  of  apprenticeship,  and  where  the  mere  bodily  existence  of  the 
laborer  is  sufficient,  the  requisite  cost  of  his  production  and  maintenance 
are  almost  limited  to  the  cost  of  the  commodities  which  are  requisite  to 
keep  him  alive.  The  price  of  his  labor  is  therefore  determined  by  the 
price  of  the  bare  necessaries  of  his  existence. 

"Here,  however,  another  consideration  comes  in.  The  manufacturer^ 
who  reckons  up  his  expenses  of  production  and  determines  accordingly 
the  price  of  the  product,  takes  into  account  the  wear  and  tear  of  the 
machinery.  If  a  machine  costs  him  £100  and  wears  itself  out  in  ten  years, 
he  adds  £10  a  year  to  the  price  of  his  goods,  in  order  to  replace  the  worn- 
out  machine  by  a  new  one  when  the  ten  years  are  up.  In  the  same  way 
we  must  reckon  in  the  cost  of  production  of  simple  labor  the  cost  of  its 
propagation;  so  that  the  race  of  laborers  may  be  put  in  a  position  to 
multiply  and  to  replace  the  worn-out  workers  by  new  ones.  Thus  the 
wear  and  tear  of  the  laborer  must  be  taken  into  account  just  as  much  as 
the  wear  and  tear  of  the  machine. 

"  Thus  the  cost  of  production  of  simple  labor  amounts  to  the  cost  of 
the  laborer's  subsistence  and  propagation,  and  the  price  of  this  cost 
determines  his  wages.  When  we  speak  of  wages  we  mean  the  minimum 
of  wages.  This  minimum  of  wages  holds  good,  just  as  does  the  deter- 
mination by  the  cost  of  production  of  the  price  of  commodities  in 
general,  not  for  the  particular  individual,  but  for  the  species.  Individual 
laborers,  indeed  millions  of  them,  do  not  receive  enough  to  enable  them 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  29 

to  subsist  and  propagate;  but  the  wages  of  the  whole  working  class  with 
all  their  fluctuations  are  nicely  adjusted  to  this  minimum. 

"  Now  that  we  are  grounded  on  these  general  laws  which  govern 
wages  just  as  much  as  the  price  of  any  other  commodity,  we  can  examine 
our  subject  more  exactly. 

"  Capital  consists  of  raw  material,  implements  of  labor,  and  all  kinds 
of  means  of  subsistence,  which  are  used  for  the  production  of  new  imple- 
ments and  new  means  of  subsistence.  All  these  factors  of  capital  are 
created  by  labor,  are  products  of  labor,  are  stored-up  labor.  Stored- 
up  labor  which  serves  as  the  means  of  new  production  is  capital." 

"  So  say  the  economists. 

"  What  is  a  negro  slave  ?  A  human  creature  of  the  black  race.  The 
one  definition  is  just  as  valuable  as  the  other. 

"  A  negro  is  a  negro.  In  certain  conditions  he  is  transformed  into  a 
slave.  A  spinning- jenny  is  a  machine  for  spinning  cotton.  Only  in  cer- 
tain conditions  is  it  transformed  into  capital.  When  torn  away  from  these 
conditions,  it  is  just  as  little  capital  as  gold  is  money  in  the  abstract,  or 
sugar  the  price  of  sugar.  In  the  work  of  production  men  do  not  stand  in 
relation  to  nature  alone.  They  only  produce  when  they  work  together  in 
a  certain  way,  and  mutually  exchange  their  different  kinds  of  energy.  In 
order  to  produce,  they  mutually  enter  upon  certain  relations  and  condi- 
tions, and  it  is  only  by  means  of  these  relations  and  conditions  that  their 
relation  to  nature  is  defined,  and  production  becomes  possible. 

"These  social  relations  upon  which  the  producers  mutually  enter, 
the  terms  upon  which  they  exchange  their  energies  and  take  their  share 
in  the  collective  act  of  producticii,  will  of  "course  difPer  according  to  the 
character  of  the  means  of  production.  With  the  invention  of  firearms  as 
implements  of  warfare  the  whole  organization  of  the  army  was  of  necessity 
altered;  and  with  the  alteration  in  the  relations  through  which  individuals 
form  an  army,  and  are  enabled  to  work  together  as  an  army,  there  was  a 
simultaneous  alteration  in  the  relations  of  armies  to  one  another. 

"  Thus  with  the  change  in  the  social  relations  by  means  of  which 
individuals  produce,  that  is,  in  the  social  relations  of  production,  and  with 
the  alteration  and  development  of  the  material  means  of  production,  the 
powers  of  production  are  also  transformed.  The  relations  of  production 
collectively  form  those  social  relations  which  we  call  a  society,  and  a  socie- 
ty with  definite  degrees  of  historical  development,  a  society  with  an 
appropriate  and  distinctive  character.  Ancient  society,  feudal  society,  bour- 
geois society,  are  instances  of  this  collective  result  of  the  relations  of 
production,  each  of  which  marks  out  an  important  step  in  the  historical 
development  of  mankind. 

"  Now  capital  also  is  a  social  condition  of  production.  It  is  a  bour- 
geois condition  of  production,  a  condition  of  the  production  of  a  bourgeois 
society.  Are  not  the  means  of  subsistence,  the  implements  of  labor,  and 
the  raw  material,  of  which  capital  consists,  the  results  of  definite  social 
relations;  were  they  not  produced  and  stored  up  under  certain  social  con- 
ditions V  Will  they  not  be  used  for  fui'ther  production  under  certain 
social  conditions  ?  And  is  it  not  just  this  definite  social  character  which 
transforms  into  capital  that  product  which  serves  for  fiuiher  production  ? 


30  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

"Capital  does  not  consist  of  means  of  subsistence,  implements  of 
labor,  and  raw  material  alone,  nor  only  of  material  products;  it  consists 
just  as  much  of  exchange-values.  All  the  products  of  which  it  consists 
are  commodities.  Thus  capital  is  not  merely  the  sum  of  material  pro- 
ducts; it  is  a  sum  of  commodities,  of  exchange -values  of  social  quantities. 

"  Capital  remains  unchanged  if  we  substitute  cotton  for  wool,  rice  for 
corn,  and  steamers  for  railways;  provided  only  that  the  cotton,  the  rice, 
the  steamers — the  bodily  form  of  capital — have  the  same  exchange  value, 
the  same  price,  as  the  wool,  the  corn,  the  railways,  in  which  it  formerly 
embodied  itself.  The  bodily  form  of  capital  may  change  continually, 
while  the  capital  itself  undergoes  not  the  slightest  alteration. 

"  But  though  all  capital  is  a  sum  of  commodities,  that  is,  of  exchange 
values,  it  is  not  every  sum  of  commodities,  of  exchange  values,  that  is 
capital. 

"  Every  sum  of  exchange  values  is  an  exchange  value.  For  instance, 
a  house  worth  a  thousand  pounds  is  an  exchange  value  of  a  thousand 
pounds.  A  penny-worth  of  paper  is  the  sum  of  the  exchange  values  of  a 
hundred-hundredths  of  a  penny.  Products  which  may  be  mutually 
exchanged  are  commodities.  The  definite  proportion  in  which  they  are 
exchangeable  forms  their  exchange  value,  or,  expressed  in  money,  their 
price.  The  amount  of  these  products  can  do  nothing  to  alter  their  defini- 
tion as  being  commodities,  or  as  representing  an  exchange  value,  or  as 
having  a  cei-tain  price.  Whether  a  tree  is  large  or  small,  it  remains  a 
tree.  Whether  we  exchange  iron  for  other  wares  in  ounces  or  in  hundred- 
weights, that  makes  no  difference  in  its  character  as  a  commodity  possess- 
ing exchange  value.  According  to  its  amount  it  is  a  commodity  of  more 
or  less  worth,  with  a  higher  or  lower  price. 

"  How  then  can  a  sum  of  commodities,  of  exchange  values,  become  cap- 
ital? 

"By  maintaining  and  multiplying  itself  as  an  independent  social 
power,  that  is,  as  the  power  of  a  portion  of  society,  by  means  of  its 
exchange  for  direct,  living  labor.  Capital  necessarily  pre-supposes  the 
existence  of  a  class  which  possesses  nothing  but  labor-force. 

"  It  is  the  lordship  of  past,  stored-up,  realized  labor  over  actual,  liv- 
ing labor  that  transforms  the  stored-up  labor  into  capital. 

"  Capital  does  not  consist  in  the  fact  that  stored-up  labor  is  used  by 
living  labor  as  a  means  to  further  production.  It  consists  in  the  fact 
that  living  labor  serves  as  the  means  whereby  stored-up  labor  may 
maintain  and  multiply  its  own  exchange -value. 

"  What  is  it  that  takes  place  in  the  exchange  between  capital  and 
wage -work  ? 

"  The  laborer  receives  in  exchange  for  his  labor  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence; but  the  capitalist  receives  in  exchange  for  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence labor,  the  productive  energy  of  the  laborer,  the  creative  force 
whereby  the  laborer  not  only  replaces  what  he  consumes,  but  also  gives 
to  the  stored-up  labor  a  greater  value  than  it  had  before.  The  laborer 
receives  from  the  capitalist  a  share  of  the  previously  provided  means  of 
subsistence.  To  what  use  does  he  put  these  means  of  subsistence  ?  He 
uses  them  for  immediate  consumption.     But  as  soon  as  I  consume  my 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  31 

means  of  subsistence,  they  disappear  and  are  irrecoverably  lost  to  me; 
it  therefore  becomes  necessary  that  I  should  employ  the  time  during  which 
these  means  keep  me  alive  in  order  to  produce  new  means  of  subsistence; 
so  that  during  their  consumption  I  may  provide  by  my  labor  new  value 
in  the  place  of  that  which  thus  disappears.  But  it  is  just  this  grand 
productive  power  which  the  laborer  has  to  bargain  away  to  capital  in 
exchange  for  the  means  of  subsistence  which  he  receives.  To  him  there- 
fore it  is  entirely  lost. 

"  Let  us  take  an  example.  A  farmer  gives  his  day-laborer  two  shill- 
ings a  day.  For  this  two  shillings  he  works  throughout  the  day  on  the 
farmer's  field,  and  so  secures  him  a  return  of  four  shillings.  The  farmer 
does  not  merely  get  the  value  which  he  had  advanced  the  day-laborer 
replaced;  he  doubles  it.  He  has  thus  spent  or  consumed  the  two  shillings 
which  he  gave  to  the  day-laborer  in  a  fruitful  and  productive  fashion. 
He  has  bought  for  his  two  shillings  just  that  labor  and  force  of  the  day- 
laborer  which  produces  fruits  of  the  earth  of  twice  the  value,  and  turns 
two  shillings  into  four.  The  day-laborer  on  the  other  hand  receives  in 
place  of  his  productive  force,  which  he  has  just  bargained  away  to  the 
farmer,  two  shillings;  and  these  he  exchanges  for  means  of  subsistence; 
which  means  of  subsistence  he  proceeds  with  more  or  less  speed  to  consume. 
The  two  shillings  have  thus  been  consumed  in  double  fashion;  productively 
for  capital,  since  they  have  been  exchanged  for  the  labor-force  which 
produced  the  four  shillings ;  unproductively  for  the  laborer,  since  they 
have  been  exchanged  for  means  of  subsistence  which  have  disappeared  for- 
ever, and  whose  value  he  can  only  recover  by  repeating  the  same  bargain 
with  the  farmer.  Thus  capital  pre-supposes  wage-labor,  and  wage-labor 
pre-supposes  capital.  They  condition  one  another;  and  each  bring  the 
other  into  play. 

"Does  a  laborer  in  a  cotton  factory  produce  merely  cotton?  No, 
he  produces  capital.  He  produces  value  which  serves  afresh  to  command 
his  own  labor,   and  to  create  new  value  by  its  means. 

"  Capital  can  only  increase  when  it  is  exchanged  for  labor,  when  it 
calls  wage-labor  into  existence.  Wage-labor  can  only  be  exchanged  for 
capital  by  augmenting  capital  and  strengthening  the  power  whose  slave  it 
is.  An  increase  of  capital  is  therefore  an  increase  of  the  proletariat,  that 
is,  of  the  laboring  class. 

"  The  interests  of  the  capitalist  and  the  laborer  are  therefore  identi- 
cal, assert  the  bourgeoisie  and  their  economists.  And,  in  fact,  so  they 
are!  The  laborer  perishes  if  capital  does  not  employ  him.  Capital  per- 
ishes if  it  does  not  exploit  labor;  and  in  order  to  exploit  it,  it  must  buy 
it.  The  faster  the  capital  devoted  to  production — the  productive  capital — 
increases,  and  the  more  successfully  the  industry  is  carried  on,  the  richer 
do  the  bourgeoisie  become,  the  better  does  business  go,  the  mbre  labor- 
ers does  the  capitalist  require,  and  the  dearer  does  the  laborer  sell  him- 
self. 

"  Thus  the  indispensable  condition  of  the  laborer's  securing  a  toler- 
able position  is  the  speediest  possible  growth  of  productive  capital. 

"  But  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  increase  of  ]^roductive  capital  ?  The 
increase  of  the  power  of  stored-up  labor  over  living  labor.     The  increase 


*32  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANAECHISM. 

of  the  dominion  of  the  bourgeoisie  over  the  laboring  class.  As 
fast  as  wage-labor  creates  its  own  antagonist  and  its  own  master  in  the 
dominating  power  of  capital,  the  means  of  employment,  that  is,  of  subsist- 
ence, flow  back  to  it  from  its  antagonist ;  but  only  on  the  condition  that  it 
is  itself  transformed  afresh  into  a  portion  of  capital,  and  becomes  the  lever 
whereby  the  increase  of  capital  may  be  again  hugely  accelerated. 

"Thus  the  statement  that  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor  are  iden- 
tical comes  to  mean  merely  this:  capital  and  wage-labor  are  the  two 
terms  of  one  and  the  same  proportion.  The  one  conditions  the  other,  just 
in  the  same  way  that  the  usurer  and  the  borrower  condition  each  other 
mutually. 

"So  long  as  the  wage-laborer  remains  a  wage-laborer,  his  lot  in 
life  is  dependent  upon  capital.  That  is  the  exact  meaning  of  the  famous 
community  of  interests  between  capital  and  labor. 

"The  increase  of  capital  is  attended  by  an  increase  in  the  amount  of 
wage-labor  and  in  the  number  of  wage-laborers;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
dominion  of  capital  is  spread  over  a  larger  number  of  individuals.  And, 
to  give  the  most  fortunate  event  possible,  with  the  increase  of  productive 
capital  there  is  an  increase  in  the  demand  for  labor.  And  thus  wages, 
the  price  of  labor,  will  rise. 

"A  house  may  be  large  or  small;  but  as  long  as  the  surrounding 
houses  are  equally  small,  it  satisfies  all  social  expectations  as  a  dwelling 
place.  But  let  a  palace  arise  by  the  side  of  this  small  house,  and  it 
shrinks  from  a  house  into  a  hut.  The  smallness  of  the  house  now  gives  it 
to  be  understood  that  its  occupant  has  either  very  small  pretentions  or 
none  at  all;  and  however  high  it  may  shoot  up  with  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation, if  the  neighboring  palace  shoots  up  also  in  the  same  or  in  greater 
proportion,  the  occupant  of  the  comparatively  small  house  will  always 
find  himself  more  uncomfortable,  more  discontented,  more  confined  within 
his  four  walls. 

"A  notable  advance  in  the  amount  paid  as  wages  brings  about  a 
rapid  increase  of  productive  capital.  The  rapid  increase  of  jjroductive 
capital  calls  forth  just  as  rapid  an  increase  in  wealth,  luxury,  social  wants, 
and  social  comforts.  Therefore,  although  the  comforts  of  the  laborer 
have  risen,  the  social  satisfaction  which  they  give  has  fallen  in  comparison 
with  these  augmented  comforts  of  the  capitalist  which  are  unattainable 
for  the  laborer,  and  in  comparison  with  the  general  development  of  com- 
forts. Our  wants  and  their  satisfaction  have  their  origin  in  society;  we 
therefore  measure  them  in  their  relation  to  society,  and  not  in  relation  to 
the  objects  which  satisfy  them.  Since  their  nature  is  social,  it  is  there- 
fore relative. 

"As  a  rule  then,  wages  are  not  determined  merely  by  the  amount  of 
commodities  for  which  they  may  be  exchanged.  They  depend  upon 
various  relations. 

"What  the  laborer  immediately  receives  for  his  labor  is  a  certain 
sum  of  money.     Are  wages  determined  merely  by  this  money  price  ? 

"In  the  sixteenth  century  the  gold  and  silver  in  circulation  in  Europe 
was  augmented  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  America.  The  value  of 
gold  and  silver  fell,  therefore,  in  proportion  to   other  commodities.     The 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  33 

laborers  received  for  their  labor  the  same  amount  of  silver  coin  as 
before.  The  money  priqe  of  their  labor  remained  the  same,  and  yet  their 
wattes  had  fallen,  for  in  exchange  for  the  same  sum  of  silver  they  obtained 
a  smaller  quantity  of  other  commodities.  This  was  one  of  the  circum- 
stances which  furthered  the  increase  of  capital  and  the  rise  of  the  bour- 
geoisie in  the  sixteenth  century. 

"Let  us  take  another  case.  In  the  winter  of  1847,  in  consequence  of 
a  failure  in  the  crops,  there  was  an  important  increase  in  the  indispensable 
means  of  subsistence,  corn,  meat,  butter,  cheese,  and  so  on.  We  will  sup- 
pose that  the  laborers  still  received  the  same  sum  of  money  for  their 
labor  as  before.  Had  not  their  wages  fallen  then  ?  Of  course  they  had. 
For  the  same  amount  of  money  they  received  in  exchange  less  bread, 
meat,  etc. ;  and  their  wages  had  fallen,  not  because  the  value  of  silver  had 
diminished,  but  because  the  value  of  the  means  of  subsistence  had 
increased. 

"Let  us  finally  suppose  that  the  money  price  of  labor  remains  the 
same,  while  in  consequence  of  the  employment  of  new  machinery,  or  on 
-account  of  a  good  season,  or  for  some  similar  reason,  there  is  a  fall  in 
the  price  of  all  agricultural  and  manufactured  goods.  For  the  same 
ivmount  of  money  the  laborers  can  now  buy  more  commodities  of  all 
kinds.  Their  wages  have  therefore  risen,  just  because  their  money  price 
has  not  changed. 

"The  money  price  of  labor,  the  nominal  amount  of  wages,  does  not 
therefore  fall  together  with  the  real  wages,  that  is,  with  the  amount  of 
commodities  that  may  practically  be  obtained  in  exchange  for  the  wages. 
Therefore  if  we  speak  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  wages,  the  money  price  of 
labor,  or  the  nominal  wage,  is  not  the  only  thing  which  we  must  keep  in 
view. 

"But  neither  the  nominal  wages,  that  is,  the  amount  of  money  for 
which  the  laborer  sells  himself  to  the  employer,  nor  yet  the  real  wages, 
that  is,  the  amount  of  commodities  which  he  can  buy  for  this  money, 
exhaust  the  relations  which  are  Comprehended  in  the  term  wages. 

"For  the  meaning  of  the  word  is  chiefly  determined  by  its  relation  to 
the  gain  or  profit  of  the  employer — it  is  a  proportionate  and  relative 
expression. 

"The  real  wage  expresses  the  price  of  labor  in  relation  to  the  price 
of  other  commodities;  the  relative  wage,  on  the  contrary,  expresses  the 
price  of  direct  labor  in  relation  to  that  of  stored-up  labor,  the  relative 
value  of  wage -labor  and  capital,  the  proportionate  value  of  capitalist  and 
laborer. 

"Real  wages  may  remain  the  same,  or  they  may  even  rise,  and  yet 
the  relative  wages  may  none  the  less  have  fallen.  Let  us  assume,  for 
example,  that  the  price  of  all  the  means  of  subsistence  has  fallen  by  two- 
thirds,  while  a  day's  wages  have  only  fallen  one-third,  as  for  instance,  from 
three  shillings  to  two.  Although  the  laborer  has  a  larger  amount  of 
commodities  at  his  disposal  for  two  shillings  than  he  had  before  at  three, 
yet  his  wages  are  nevertheless  diniinished  in  proportion  to  the  capitalist's 
gain.  Th©  capitalist's  profit — the  manufacturer's,  for  instance — has  been 
augmented  by  a  shilling,  since  the  smaller  sum  of  exchange-value  which 


^4  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANAECHISM. 

he  pays  to  the  laborer,  the  laborer  has  to  produce  a  larger  sum  of 
exchange- value  than  he  did  before.  The  value  of  capital  is  raised  in  pro- 
portion to  the  value  of  labor.  The  division  of  social  wealth  between 
capital  and  labor  has  become  more  disproportionate.  The  capitalist 
commands  a  larger  amount  of  labor  with  the  same  amount  of  capital. 
The  power  of  the  capitalist  class  over  the  laboring  class  is  increased;  the 
social  position  (5f  the  laborer  has  deteriorated,  and  is  depressed  another 
degree  below  that  of  the  capitalist. 

"What  then  is  the  general  law  which  determines  the  rise  and  fall  of 
wages  and  profit  in  their  reciprocal  relation  ? 

"They  stand  in  inverse  proportion  to  one  another.  Capital's 
exchange -value,  profit,  rises  in  the  same  proportion  in  which  the  exchange- 
value  of  labor,  wages,  sinks;  and  conversely.  The  rise  in  profit  is 
exactly  measured  by  the  fall  in  wages,  and  the  fall  in  profit  by  the  rise 
in  wages. 

"The  objection  may  perhaps  be  made  that  the  capitalist  may  have 
gained  a  profit  by  advantageous  exchange  of  his  products  with  other  capi- 
talists, or  by  a  rise  in  the  demand  for  his  goods,  whether  in  consequence 
of  the  opening  of  new  markets,  or  of  a  greater  demand  in  the  old  markets; 
that  the  profit  of  the  capitalist  may  thus  increase  by  means  of  over-reach- 
ing another  capitalist,  independently  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  wages  and  the 
exchange- value  of  labor;  or  that  the  profit  of  the  capitalist  may  also  rise- 
through  an  improvement  in  the  implements  of  labor,  a  new  application 
of  natural  forces,  and  so  on. 

"But  it  must  nevertheless  be  admitted  that  the  result  remains  the 
same,  although  it  is  brought  about  in  a  different  way.  The  capitalist  has 
acquired  a  larger  amount  of  exchange-value  with  the  same  amount  of 
labor,  without  having  had  to  pay  a  higher  price  for  the  labor  on  that 
account;  th^t  is  to  say,  a  lower  price  has  been  paid  for  the  labor  in  pro- 
portion to  the  net  profit  which  it  yields  to  the  capitalist. 

"Besides  we  must  remember  that  in  spite  of  the  fluctuations  in  the 
price  of  commodities,  the  average  price  of  each  commodity — the  propor- 
tion in  which  it  exchanges  for  other  commodities — is  determined  by  its 
cost  of  production.  The  over-reaching  and  tricks  that  go  on  within  the 
capitalist  class  therefore  necessarily  cancel  one  another.  Improvements 
in  machinery,  and  new  applications  of  natural  forces  to  the  service  of  pro- 
duction, enable  them,  to  turn  out  in  a  given  time  with  the  same  amount  of 
labor  and  capital  a  larger  quantity  of  products,  but  by  no  means  a  larger 
quantity  of  exchange-value,  If  by  the  application  of  the  spinning- jenny 
I  can  turn  out  twice  as  much  thread  in  an  hour  as  I  could  before  its  in- 
vention, for  instance,  a  hundred  pounds  instead  of  fifty,  that  is  because 
the  cost  of  production  has  been  halved,  or  because  at  the  same  cost  I  can 
turn  out  double  the  amount  of  products. 

"Finally  in  whatsoever  proportion  the  capitalist  classes — the  bour- 
geoisie— whether  of  one  country  or  of  the  market  of  the  whole  world — 
share  among  themselves  the  net  profits  of  production,  the  total  amount  of 
these  net  profits  always  consists  merely  of  the  amount  by  which,  taking  aR 
in  all,    direct  labor    has  been  increased    by  means  of    stored-up  labor- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  •  35 

This  sum  total  increases,  therefore,  in  the  proportion  in  which  labor  aug- 
ments ca})ital;  that  is,  in  the  proportion  in  which  profit  rises  as  compared 
with  wages. 

"Thus  we  see  that  even  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  relation  between 
capital  and  wage-labor,  the  interests  of  capital  are  in  direct  antagonism 
to  the  interest  of  wage-labor. 

"  A  rapid  increase  of  capital  is  equal  to  a  rapid  increase  of  profits. 
Profits  can  only  make  a  rapid  increase,  if  the  exchange- value  of  labor — 
the  relative  wage — makes  an  equally  rapid  decline.  The  relative  wage 
may  decline,  although  the  actual  wage  rises  along  with  the  nominal  wage, 
or  money  price  of  labor;  if  only  it  does  not  rise  in  the  same  proportion 
as  profit.  For  instance,  if  when  trade  is  good,  wages  rise  five  per  cent., 
and  profits  on  the  other  hand  thirty  per  cent.,  then  the  proportional  or 
relative  wage  has  not  increased  but  declined. 

"Thus  if  the  receipts  of  the  laborer  increase  with  the  rapid  advance 
of  capital,  yet  at  the  same  time  there  is  a  widening  of  the  social  gulf  which, 
separates  the  laborer  from  the  capitalist,  and  also  an  increase  in  the 
power  of  capital  over  labor  and  in  the  dependence  of  labor  upon  capital. 

"The  meaning  of  the  statement  that  the  laborer  has  an  interest  in 
the  rapid  increase  of  capital  is  merely  this;  the  faster  the  laborer  in- 
creases his  master's  dominion,  the  richer  will  be  the  crumbs  that  he  will 
get  fi'om  his  table;  and  the  gieater  the  number  of  laborers  that  can  be 
employed  and  called  into  existence,  the  greater  vdll  be  the  number  of 
slaves  of  which  capital  will  be  the  owner. 

"  We  have  thus  seen  that  even  the  most  fortunate  event  for  the  work- 
ing class,  the  speediest  possible  increase  of  capital,  however  much  it  may 
improve  the  material  condition  of  the  laborer,  cannot  abolish  the  opposi- 
tion between  his  interests  and  those  of  the  bourgeois  or  capitalist  class. 
Profit  and  wages  remain  just  as  much  as  ever  in  inverse  proportion. 

"  When  capital  is  increasing  fast,  wages  may  rise,  but  the  profit  of 
capital  will  rise  much  faster.  The  actual  position  of  the  laborer  has  im- 
proved, but  it  is  at  the  expense  of  his  social  position.  The  social  gulf 
which  separates  him  from  the  capitalist  has  widened. 

"  Finally,  the  meaning  of  fortunate  conditions  for  wage-labor,  and  of 
the  quickest  possible  increase  of  productive  capital,  is  merely  this;  the 
faster  the  working  classes  enlarge  and  extend  the  hostile  power  that  domi- 
nates over  them,  the  better  will  be  the  conditions  under  which  they  will 
be  allowed  to  labor  for  the  further  increase  of  bourgeois  dominion  and  for 
the  wider  extension  of  the  power  of  capital,  and  thus  contentedly  to  forge 
for  themselves  the  golden  chains  by  which  the  bourgeois  drags  them  in  its 
train. 

"  But  are  the  increase  of  productive  capital  and  the  rise  of  wages  so 
indissolubly  connected  as  the  bourgeois  economists  assert?  We  can 
hardly  believe  that  the  fatter  capital  becomes,  the  more  will  its  slave  be 
})ampered.  The  bourgeoisie  is  too  much  enlightened,  and  keeps  its 
accounts  much  too  carefully,  to  care  for  that  privilege  of  the  feudal  nobil- 
ity, the  ostentation  of  splendor  in  its  retinue.  The  very  conditions  of 
bourgeois  existence  compel  it  to  keep  careful  accounts. 


36  •  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

"  We  must  therefore  inquire  more  closely  into  the  efPect  which  the 
increase  of  productive  capital  has  upon  wages, 

"  With  the  general  increase  of  the  productive  capital  of  a  bourgeois 
society  a  manifold  accumulation  of  labor-force  takes  place.  The  capital- 
ists increase  in  number  and  in  power.  The  increase  in  the  number  of 
capitalists  increases  the  competition  between  capitalists.  Their  increased 
power  gives  them  the  means  of  leading  into  the  industrial  battle-field 
mightier  armies  of  laborers  furnished  with  gigantic  implements  of  war. 

"  The  one  capitalist  can  only  succeed  in  driving  the  other  off  the  field 
and  taking  possession  of  his  capital  by  selling  his  wares  at  a  cheaper  rate. 
In  order  to  sell  more  cheaply  without  ruining  himself,  he  must  produce 
more  cheaply,  that  is,  he  must  heighten  as  much  as  possible  the  produc- 
tiveness of  labor.  But  the  most  effective  way  of  making  labor  more  pro- 
ductive is  by  means  of  a  more  complete  subdivision  of  labor,  or  by  the 
more  extended  use  and  continual  improvement  of  machinery.  The  more 
numerous  the  departments  into  which  labor  is  divided,  and  the  more 
gigantic  the  scale  in  which  machinery  is  introduced,  in  so  much  the  greater 
proportion  does  the  cost  of  production  decline,  and  so  much  the  more 
fruitful  is  the  labor.  Thus  arises  a  manifold  rivalry  among  capitalists 
vv^ith  the  object  of  increasing  the  subdivision  of  labor  and  machinery,  and 
teeping  up  the  utmost  possible  progressive  rate  of  exploitation. 

"  Now  if  by  means  of  a  greater  subdivision  of  labor,  by  the  employ- 
ment and  improvement  of  new  machines,  or  by  the  more  skillful  and  pro- 
fitable use  of  the  forces  of  nature,  a  capitalist  has  discovered  the  means 
of  producing  a  larger  amount  of  commodities  than  his  competitors  with 
the  same  amount  of  labor;  whether  it  be  stored-up  labor  or  direct — if  he 
-can,  for  instance,  spin  a  complete  yard  of  cotton  in  the  time  that  his  com- 
petitors take  to  spin  half-a-yard — how  will  this  capitalist  proceed  to  act? 
\  "  He  might  go  on  selling  half-a-yard  at  its  former  market  price;  but 
that  would  not  have  the  effect  of  driving  his  opponents  out  of  the  field 
and  increasing  his  own  sale.  ^  But  the  need  of  increasing  his  sale  has  in- 
creased in  the  same  proportion  as  his  production.  The  more  effective  and 
more  expensive  means  of  production  which  he  has  called  into  existence 
enable  him,  of  course,  to  sell  his  wares  cheaper,  but  they  also  compel  him 
to  sell  more  wares  and  to  secure  a  much  larger  market  for  them.  Our 
•capitalist  will  therefore  proceed  to  sell  his  half-a-yard  of  cotton  cheaper 
than  his  competitors. 

"  The  capitalist  will  not,  however,  sell  his  complete  yard  so  cheaply 
as  his  competitors  sell  the  half,  although  its  entire  production  does  not 
€ost  him  more  than  the  production  of  half  costs  the  others.  For  in  that 
case  he  would  gain  nothing,  but  would  only  get  back  the  cost  of  its  pro- 
duction. The  contingent  increase  in  his  receipts  would  result  from  his 
having  set  in  motion  a  larger  capital,  but  not  from  having  made  his  capi- 
tal more  profitable  than  that  of  the  others.  Besides  he  gains  the  end  he 
is  aiming  at,  if  he  prices  his  goods  a  slight  percentage  lower  than  his 
competitors.  He  drives  them  off  the  field,  and  wi'ests  from  them  at  any 
rate  a  portion  of  their  sale,  if  only  he  undersells  them.  And  finally  we 
must  remember  that  the  price  current  always  stands  either  above  or  be- 
low the  cost  of  production,  according  as  the  sale  of  a  commodity  is  trans- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  37 

acted  at  a  favorable  or  unfavorable  period  of  business.  According  as  the 
market  price  of  a  yard  of  cloth  is  above  or  below  its  former  cost  of  pro- 
duction, the  percentage  will  alter  in  which  the  capitalist  who  has  employed 
the  new  and  profitable  means  of  production  exceeds  in  its  sale  the 
actual  cost  of  its  production  to  him. 

"  But  our  capitalist  does  not  find  his  privilege  very  lasting.  Other 
rival  capitalists  introduce  with  more  or  less  rapidity  the  same  machines 
and  the  same  subdivision  of  labor;  and  this  introduction  becomes  general, 
until  the  price  of  the  yard  of  cloth  is  reduced  not  only  below  its  old,  but 
below  its  new  cost  of  production. 

"  Thus  the  capitalists  find  themselves  relatively  in  the  same  position 
in  which  they  stood  before  the  introduction  of  the  new  means  of  produc- 
tion; and  if  they  are  by  these  means  enabled  to  ofPer  twice  the  product 
for  the  same  price,  they  now  find  themselves  compelled  to  offer  the 
doubled  amount  for  less  than  the  old  price.  From  the  standpoint  of  these 
new  means  of  production  the  old  game  begins  anew.  There  is  greater 
subdivision  of  labor,  more  machinery,  and  a  more  rapid  progress  in  the 
exploitation  of  both.  Whereupon  competition  brings  about  the  same 
reaction  against  this  result. 

"  Thus  we  see  how  the  manner  and  means  of  production  are  continu- 
ally renewed  and  revolutionised;  and  how  the  division  of  labor  necessarily 
brings  in  its  train  a  greater  division  of  labor;  the  introduction  of  machin- 
ery, a  still  larger  introduction;  and  the  rapidity  of  progress  in  the  effi- 
ciency of  labor,  a  still  greater  rapidity  of  progress. 

"  That  is  the  law  which  continually  drives  bourgeois  production  out 
of  its  old  track,  and  compels  capital  to  intensify  the  productive  powers  of 
labor  for  the  very  reason  that  it  has  already  intensified  them — the  law 
that  allows  it  no  rest,  but  for  ever  whispers  in  its  ear  the  words,  '  Quick 
March!' 

''  This  is  no  other  law  than  that  which,  cancelling  the  periodical  fluc- 
tuations of  business,  necessarily  identifies  the  price  of  a  commodity  with  its 
cost  of  production. 

"  However  powerful  are  the  means  of  production  which  a  particular 
capitalist  may  bring  into  the  field,  competition  will  make  their  adoption 
general;  and  the  moment  it  becomes  general,  the  sole  result  of  the  greater 
fruitfulness  of  his  capital  is  that  he  must  now  for  the  same  price  offer  ten, 
twenty,  a  hundred  times  as  much  as  before.  But  as  he  must  dispose  of 
perhaps  a  thousand  times  as  much,  in  order  to  outweigh  the  decrease  in 
the  selling  price  by  the  larger  proportion  of  products  sold;  since  a  larger 
sale  has  now  become  necessary,  not  only  to  gain  a  larger  profit,  but  also  to 
replace  the  cost  of  production ;  and  the  implements  of  production,  as  we 
have  seen,  always  get  more  exj^ensive;  and  since  this  larger  sale  has  become 
a  vital  question,  not  only  for  him,  but  also  for  his  rivals,  the  old  strife  con- 
tinues with  all  the  greater  violence,  in  proportion  as  the  previously  dis- 
covered means  of  production  are  more  fruitfiil.  Thus  the  subdivision  of 
labor  and  the  employment  of  new  machinery  take  a  fresh  start,  and  i)ro- 
ceed  with  still  greater  rapidity.         - 

"And  thus,  whatever  be  the  power  of  the  means  of  ]:>roduction 
employed,  competition  does  its  best  to  rob  capital  of  the  golden  fruit  which  it 


38  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

produces,  by  reducing  the  price  of  commodities  to  their  cost  of  production; 
and,  as  fast  as  their  production  is  cheapened,  compeUing  by  a  despotic 
law  the  larger  supply  of  cheaper  products  to  be  offered  at  the  former 
price.  Thus  the  capitalist  will  have  won  nothing  by  his  exertions  beyond 
the  obligation  to  produce  faster  than  before,  and  an  enhancement  of  the 
difficulty  of  employing  his  capital  to  advantage.  While  competition  con- 
tinually persecutes  him  with  its  law  of  the  cost  of  production,  and  turns 
against  himself  every  weapon  which  he  forges  against  his  rivals;  the  capi- 
talist continually  tries  to  cheat  competition  by  incessantly  introducing 
further  subdivision  of  labor,  and  replacing  the  old  machines  by  new  ones, 
which,  though  more  expensive,  produce  more  cheaply;  instead  of  waiting 
till  competition  has  rendered  them  obsolete. 

"  Let  us  now  look  at  this  feverish  agitation  as  it  affects  the  market  of 
the  whole  world,  and  we  shall  understand  how  the  increase,  accumulation, 
and  concentration  of  capital  bring  in  their  train  an  uninterrupted  and 
extreme  subdivision  of  labor,  always  advancing  with  gigantic  strides  of  pro- 
gress, and  a  continual  employment  of  new  machinery  together  with 
improvement  of  the  old. 

"  But  how  do  these  circumstances,  inseparable  as  they  are  from  the 
increase  of  productive  capital,  affect  the  determination  of  the  amount  of 
wages  ? 

"  The  greater  division  of  labor  enables  one  laborer  to  do  the  work  of 
■five,  ten,  twenty;  it  therefore  multiplies  the  competition  among  laborers  five, 
ten  or  twenty  times.  The  laborers  do  not  only  compete  when  one  sells 
himself  cheaper  than  another;  they  also  compete  when  one  does  the  work 
of  five,  ten  or  twenty;  and  the  division  of  labor  which  capital  introduces  and 
continually  increases,  compels  the  laborers  to  enter  into  this  kind  of  com- 
petition with  one  another. 

"Further;  in  the  same  proportion  in  which  the  division  of  labor  is 
increased,  the  labor  itself  is  simplified.  The  special  skill  of  the  laborer 
becomes  worthless.  '  It  is  changed  into  a  monotonous  and  uniform  power 
production,  which  can  give  play  neither  to  bodily  nor  to  intellectual  elas- 
ticity. Its  labor  becomes  accessible  to  everybody.  Competitors  therefofe 
throng  into  it  from  all  sides;  and  besides  we  must  remember  that  the  more 
simply  and  easily  learnt  the  labor  is,  and  the  less  it  costs  a  man  to  make 
himself  master  of  it,  so  much  the  lower  must  its  wages  sink;  since  they 
are  determined,  like  the  price  of  every  other  commodity,  by  its  cost  of 
production. 

"Therefore  exactly  as  the  labor  becomes  more  unsatisfactory  and 
unpleasant,  in  that  very  proportion  competition  increases  and  wages 
decline.  The  laborer  does  his  best  to  maintain  the  rate  of  his  wages  by 
performing  more  labor,  whether  by  working  for  a  greater  number  of  hours, 
or  by  working  harder  in  the  same  time.  Thus,  driven  by  necessity,  he 
himself  increases  the  evil  of  the  subdivision  of  labor.  So  the  result  is 
this;  the  more  he  labors,  the  less  reward  he  receives  for  it;  and  that  for 
this  simple  reason — that  he  competes  against  his  fellow-workmen,  and  thus 
compels  them  to  compete  against  him,  and  to  offer  their  labor  on  as 
wretched  conditions  as  he  does;  and  that  he  thus  in  the  last  result  com- 
petes against  himself  as  a  member  of  the  working  class. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  39 

"  Machinery  has  the  same  effect,  but  in  a  much  greater  degree.  It 
supplants  skilled  laborers  by  unskilled,  men  by  women,  adults  by  chil- 
dren; where  it  is  newly  introduced,  it  throws  the  hand-laborers  upon  the 
streets  in  crowds ;  and  where  it  is  perfected  or  replaced  by  latter  improve- 
ments and  more  inventions,  discards.them  by  slightly  slower  degrees.  We 
have  sketched  above  in  hasty  outlines  the  industral  war  of  capitalists  with 
one  another ;  and  the  war  has  this  peculiarty,  that  its  battles  are  won  less 
by  means  of  enlisting  than  of  discharging  its  industrial  recruits.  The 
generals  or  capitalists  vie  with  one  another  as  to  who  can  dispense  with 
the  greatest  number  of  his  soldiers. 

"  The  economists  repeatedly  assure  us  that  the  laborers  who  are  ren- 
dered superfluous  by  the  machines  find  new  branches  of  employment. 

*'  They  have  not  the  hardihood  directly  to  assert  that  the  laborers 
who  are  discharged  enter  upon  the  new  branches  of  labor.  The  facts 
cry  out  too  loud  against  such  a  lie  as  this.  They  only  declare  that  for 
other  divisions  of  the  laboring  class,  as  for  instance,  for  the  rising  gener- 
ation of  laborers  who  were  just  ready  to  enter  upon  the  defunct  branch 
of  industry,  new  means  of  employment  will  open  out.  Of  course  that  is  a 
oreat  satisfaction  for  the  dismissed  laborers.  The  worshipful  capitalists 
will  not  find  their  fresh  supply  of  exploitable  flesh  and  blood  run  short, 
and  will  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.  This  is  indeed  a  consolation  with 
which  the  bourgeois  comfort  themselves  rather  than  the  laborers.  If  the 
whole  class  of  wage-laborers  were  annihilated  by  the  machines,  how 
shocking  that  would  be  for  capital,  which  without  wage-labor  ceases  to 
act  as  capital  at  all. 

"  But  let  us  suppose  that  those  who  are  directly  driven  out  of  their 
employment  by  machinery,  and  also  all  those  of  the  rising  generation  who 
were  expecting  employment  in  the  same  line,  find  some  new  employment. 
Does  any  one  imagine  that  this  will  be  as  highly  paid  as  that  which  they 
have  lost  ?  Such  an  idea  would  be  in  direct  contradiction  to  all  the  laws 
of  economy.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  modem  form  of  industry 
always  tends  to  the  displacement  of  the  more  complex  and  the  higher  kinds 
of  employment,  by  those  which  are  more  simple  and  subordinate. 

"  How  then  could  a  crowd  of  laborers,  who  are  thrown  out  of  one 
branch  of  industry  by  machinery,  find  refuge  in  another,  without  having 
to  content  themselves  with  a  lower  position  and  worse  pay  ? 

"The  laborers  who  are  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  machinery 
itself  have  been  instanced  as  an  exception.  As  soon  as  a  desire  arises  and 
a  demand  begins  in  an  industry  for  more  machinery,  it  is  said  that  there 
must  necessarily  be  an  increase  in  the  number  of  machines,  and  therefore 
in  the  manufacture  of  machines,  and  therefore  in  the  employment  of 
laborers  in  this  manufacture;  and  the  laborers  who  are  employed  in 
this  branch  of  industry  will  be  skilled,  and  indeed  even  educated  laborers. 

"  Ever  since  the  year  1840  this  contention,  which  even  before  that  time 
was  only  half  true,  has  lost  all  its  specious  color.  For  the  machine  which 
are  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  machinery  have  been  quite  as  numerous 
as  those  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton;  and  the  laborers  who  are 
employed  in  producing  machines,  instead  of  bieing  highly  educated,  have 
•only  been  able  to  play  the  part  of  utterly  unskilled  machines  themselves. 


40  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

•'But  in  the  place  of  the  man  who  has  been  dismissed  by  the  machine 
perhaps  three  children  and  one  woman  are  employed  to  work  it.  And  was 
it  not  necessary  before  that  the  man's  wages  should  suffice  for  the  support 
of  his  wife  and  his  children  ?  Was  not  the  minimum  of  wages  necessarily 
sufficient  for  the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  the  race  of  laborers  ? 
There  is  no  difference,  except  that  now  the  lives  of  four  times  as  many 
laborers  as  before  are  used  up  in  order  to  secure  the  support  of  one 
laborer's  family. 

"To  repeat  our  deductions;  the  faster  productive  capital  increases, 
the  more  does  the  division  of  labor  and  the  employment  of  machinery 
extend.  The  more  the  division  of  labor  and  the  employment  of  machin- 
ery extend,  so  much  the  more  does  competition  increase  among  the  labor- 
ers, and  so  much  the  more  do  their  average  wages  dwindle. 

"  And  besides,  the  laboring  class  is  recruited  from  the  higher  strata 
of  society;  or  else  there  falls  headlong  into  it  a  crowd  of  small  manufact- 
urers and  small  proprietors,  who  thenceforth  have  nothing  better  to  do 
than  to  stretch  out  their  arms  by  the  side  of  those  of  the  laborers.  And 
thus  the  forest  of  arms  outstretched  by  those  who  are  entreating  for  work 
becomes  ever  denser  and  the  arms  themselves  grow  ever  leaner. 

"  That  the  small  manufacturer  cannot  survive  in  a  contest,  whose  first 
condition  is  production  on  a  continually  increasing  scale,  that  is,  that  he 
cannot  be  at  once  both  a  large  and  a  small  manufacturer,  is  self-evident. 

"  That  the  interest  on  capital  declines  in  the  same  proportion  as  the 
amount  of  capital  increases  and  extends,  and  that  therefore  the  small  capi- 
talist can  no  longer  live  on  his  interest,  but  must  join  the  ranks  of  the 
workers  and  increase  the  number  of  the  proletariat, — all  this  requires  no 
further  exemplification. 

"  Finally,  in  the  proportion  in  which  the  capitalists  are  compelled  by 
the  causes  here  sketched  out  to  exploit  on  an  ever  increasing  scale  yet 
more  gigantic  means  of  production,  and  with  this  object  to  set  in  motion 
all  the  mainsprings  of  credit,  in  this  same  proportion  is  there  an  increase 
of  those  earthquakes  wherein  the  business  world  can  only  secure  its  own 
existence  by  the  sacrifice  of  a  portion  of  its  wealth,  its  products,  and  even 
its  powers  of  production  to  the  gods  of  the  world  below— in  a  word,  crises 
increase.  They  become  at  once  more  frequent  and  more  violent;  because 
in  the  same  proportion  in  which  the  amount  of  production,  and  therefore 
the  demand  for  an  extension  of  the  market,  increases,  the  market  of  the 
world  continually  contracts,  and  ever  fewer  markets  remain  to  be  exploited; 
since  every  previous  crisis  has  added  to  the  commerce  of  the  world  a 
market  which  was  not  known  before,  or  had  been  only  superficially 
exploited  by  commerce.  But  capital  not  only  lives  upon  labor.  Like  a 
lord,  at  once  distinguished  and  barbarous,  it  drags  with  it  to  the  grave 
the  corpses  of  its  slaves  and  whole  hecatombs  of  laborers  who  perish  in 
the  crisis.  Thus  we  see  that  if  capital  increases  fast,  competition  among  the 
laborers  increases  still  faster,  that  is,  the  means  of  employment  and  sub- 
sistence decline  in  proportion  at  a  still  more  rapid  rate;  and  yet,  none  the 
less,  the  most  fortunate  conditions  for  wage-labor  lie  in  the  speedy 
increase  of  capital." 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM.  41 

CHAPTER  V. 

Capitalism. — Origin  of  the  Bourgeoisie  and  Proletariat. 


In  February,  1848,  the  now  historical  "  Communist  Manifesto "" 
appeared  in  London,  England.  It  was  translated  into  all  the  European  lan- 
guages and  spread  broadcast  by  the  workingmen's  societies  of  those 
countries.     An  extract  from  it  is  here  given  as  follows: 

"  From  the  serfs  of  the  middle  ages  sprang  the  burgesses  of  the  early 
Communes;  and  from  this  municipal  class  were  developed  the  firs{  elements 
of  the  bourgeoisie.  The  discovery  of  America,  the  circumnavigation  of 
Africa,  gave  the  bourgeoisie  or  middle  class — then  coming  into  being — 
new  and  wider  fields  of  action.  The  colonization  of  America,  the  opening 
up  of  the  East  Indian  and  Chinese  markets,  the  colonial  trade,  the  increase 
of  merchandise  and  of  cuiTency,  gave  an  impetus — hitherto  unknown — to- 
commerce,  shipping  and  manufactures,  and  aided  the  rapid  development 
of  the  revolutionary  element  in  the  old  decaying  form  of  feudal  society. 

"The  old  feudal  way  of  managing  the  industrial  interests  through 
guilds  was  found  no  longer  sufficient  for  the  increasing  demands  of  new 
markets.  It  was  replaced  by  the  manufacturing  system.  Guilds  gave 
way  to  the  industrial  middle  class,  and  the  division  of  labor  between  the 
different  corporations  was  succeeded  by  the  division  of  labor  between  the 
workmen  of  one  and  the  same  workshop. 

"New  markets  multiplied;  the  demand  still  increased.  The  manu- 
facturing system  in  its  turn  was  found  to  be  inadequate.  Then  industrial 
production  was  revolutionized  by  machinery  and  steam.  The  modem 
industrial  system  was  then  developed  in  all  its  gigantic  proportions;  instead 
of  the  industrial  middle-class  we  find  industrial  millionaires,  chiefs  of 
whole  industrial  armies — the  modern  bourgeoisie,  or  middle-class  capital- 
ists. This  system  of  modem  industry  founded  a  world-wide  market,  which 
the  discovery  of  America  had  prepared,  and  thereby  an  immense  develop- 
ment was  given  to  commerce,  and  to  the  means  of  communication  by  sea, 
and  land.  This  again  reacted  upon  the  industrial  system,  and  in  the 
same  degree  that  industry,  trade,  shipping  and  railroads  have  increased, 
so  have  the  bourgeoisie  developed  and  increased  their  capital,  and  at  the 
same  time  have  driven  to  the  wall  all  classes  then  remaining  from  feudal 
times. 

"We  find,  therefore,  that  the  modem  bourgeoisie  are  themselves  the 
result  of  a  long  process  of  development,  of  a  series  of  revolutions  in  the 
modes  of  production  and  exchange.  Each  of  these  stages  in  the  evolution 
of  the  bourgeoisie  was  accompanied  by  corresponding  progress.  It  was  an 
oppressed  class  under  the  old  feudal  barons ;  in  the  mediaeval  commimes  it 
assumed  the  form  of  armed  and  self  governing  associations;  in  one  county 
we  find  it  existing  as  a  commercial  republic  or  fi-ee  city ;  in  another,  as  the 
third  taxablo  f'stfitn  of  the  monarchy;  then  during  the  prevalence  of  the 


42  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

manufacturing  system  (before  the  introduction  of  steam)  the  middle-class 
was  a  counterpoise  to  the  nobility  in  absolute  monarchies,  and  the  ground- 
work of  the  powerful  monarchial  states  generally.  Finally,  since  the  ad- 
vent of  the  modern  industrial  system,  witK  its  world-wide  markets,  this 
class  has  gained  exclusive  possession  of  political  power  in  modem  repre- 
sentative states.  Modern  governments  are  merely  committees  for  manag- 
ing the  afPairs  of  industry  in  the  interest  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

"The  bourgeoisie  have  played  an  extremely  revolutionary  role  in 
society! 

"The  bourgeoisie  have  destroyed  all  feudal,  patriarchal  and  idylic 
relations  wherever  they  have  come  into  power.  They  relentlessly  tore 
asunder  the  many-sided  ties  of  that  chain  which  bound  men  to  their  'nat- 
ural superiors,'  and  they  left  no  bond  of  union  between  man  and  man, 
save  that  of  bare  self-interest — of  cash  payments.  They  resolved  personal 
dignity  into  market  value,  and  substituted  the  single  unprincipled  idea  of 
freedom  of  trade  for  the  numerous,  well-earned,  chartered  liberties  of  the 
middle  ages.  Chivalrous  enthusiasm,  the  emotions  of  piety,  and  all  prin- 
ciples of  personal  honor  have  vanished  before  the  icy  breath  of  their  selfish 
calculations.  In  a  word,  the  bourgeoisie  substituted  shameless,  direct 
open  spoliation,  for  the  previous  system  of  spoliation  concealed  under 
religious  and  political  illusions. 

"The  bourgeoisie  divested  of  their  sanctity  all  institutions  heretofore 
regarded  with  pious  veneration.  They  converted  the  physician,  the  jurist, 
the  priest,  the  poet,  the  philosopher,  into  their  paid  tools  and  servants. 

"The  bourgeoisie  have  torn  the  tender  veil  of  sentiment  away  from 
domestic  ties  and  reduced  the  family  relations  to  a  mere  question  of  dol- 
lars and  cents. 

"The  bourgeoisie  have  demonstrated  how  the  brutal  force  of  the  mid- 
dle ages,  which  is  so  much  admired  by  reactionists,  has  found  its  most 
befitting  fulfilment  to-day  in  the  laziest  ruffianism.  They  have  also  shown 
what  human  activity  is  capable  of  accomplishing.  They  have  executed 
work  more  marvelous  than  Egyptian  Pyramids,  Koman  Acqueducts,  or 
Gothic  Cathedrals;  and  their  expeditions  have  surpassed  by  far  all  former 
crusades  and  migrations  of  nations. 

"The  bourgeoisie  cannot  exist,  without  continually  revolutionizing 
machinery  and  the  instruments  of  production,  and  consequently  changing 
all  our  social  institutions.  Persistence  in  the  established  modes  of  j^ro- 
duction  was,  on  the  contrary,  in  former  years,  the  first  condition  of  exist- 
ence for  all  other  industrial  classes.  A  continual  change  in  the  modes  of 
production,  a  never  ceasing  state  of  agitation  and  social  insecurity,  distin- 
guish the  bourgeois  epoch  from  all  preceding  ones.  The  ancient  ties 
between  men — their  opinions  and  belief,  hoary  with  antiquity — are  fast 
disappearing,  and  new  ones  become  worn  out  ere  they  become  firmly 
rooted.  Everything  fixed  and  stable  vanishes ;  everything  holy  and  vener- 
able is  profaned;  and  men  are  forced  to  look  at  their  mutual  relations,  at 
the  problem  of  life,  in  the  soberest,  most  matter-of-fact  manner. 

"The  need  of  an  ever  increasing  market  for  their  produce  drives  the 
bourgeoisie  all  over  the  entire  globe — they  found  settlements,  form  con- 
nections and  set  up  means  of  communication  everywhere.     Through  their 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  43 

control  of  the  world's  markets  they  have  given  a  cosmopolitan  tendency  to 
the  production  and  consumption  of  all  countries.  To  the  great  regret  of 
the  reactionists  the  bourgeoisie  have  deprived  modem  industry  of  its 
national  foundation.  The  old  national  manufactures  have  been  in  some 
cases  annihilated  and  are  still  being  destroyed.  They  are  superseded  by 
new  modes  of  industry,  the  introduction  of  which  is  becoming  a  vital  ques- 
tion for  all  civilized  nations,  where  raw  materials  are  not  indigenous,  but 
are  brought  from  the  remotest  countries;  and  whose  products  are  not 
merely  consumed  in  the  home  market,  but  throughout  the  the  whole  world. 
Instead  of  the  old  primitive  wants,  supplied  only  by  home  production, 
we  now  find  new  wants  supplied  by  the  products  of  the  most  distant  lands 
and  climes.  Instead  of  the  old  local,  national  feeling  of  independence 
and  isolation,  we  find  universal  intercourse  and  inter- dependence  among 
nations.  The  same  fact  obtains  in  the  intellectual  world!  The  intel- 
lectual productions  of  each  nation  become  the  common  property  of  all 
nations.  National  partiality  and  prejudice  are  fast  becoming  impossible 
and  a  universal  literature  is  being  formed  from  the  numerous  local  and 
national  literatures. 

"Through  incessant  improvements  in  machinery  and  the  means  of 
communication,  the  bourgeoisie  draw  the  most  barbarous  nations  into  the 
magic  circle  of  civilization.  Cheap  goods  are  their  artillery  for  battering 
down  Chinese  walls  and  to  overcome  the  obstinate  hatred  entertained 
towards  strangers  by  semi-civilized  nations.  Under  penalty  of  ruin,  the 
bourgeoisie  compel  by  competition  the  universal  adoption  of  their  system 
of  production;  they  force  all  nations  to  accept  what  is  called  civilization — 
to  become  bourgeois — and  thus  the  middle  class  shapes  the  world  after  its 
own  image. 

"  The  bourgeoisie  have  subjected  the  rural  districts  to  the  ascendancy 
of  the  town;  they  have  created  enormous  cities,  and  by  causing  an 
immense  increase  of  population  in  manufacturing  districts,  compared  with 
agricultural,  have  removed  a  greater  part  of  the  population  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  country  life.  Not  only  have  they  made  the  country  subordinate 
to  the  town,  they  have  also  made  barbarous  and  half  civilized  tribes 
dependent  on  civilized  nations,  the  agricultural  on  the  manufacturing 
nations,  the  East  on  the  West.  The  division  of  property,  of  the  means  of 
production  disappear  under  the  rule  of  the  bourgeoisie.  They  agglomer- 
ate population,  they  centralize  the  means  of  production,  and  concentrate 
property  in  the  hands  of  the  few.  Political  centralization  is  the  natural 
result.  Independent  provinces,  with  different  interests,  each  affected  by 
separate  customs  and  under  separate  local  government  are  brought  together 
as  one  nation,  under  the  same  government,  the  same  laws,  customs,  and 
tariff-sunder  the  same  national  class  interest. 

"  The  rule  of  the  bourgeoisie  has  only  prevailed  for  about  a  century, 
but  during  that  time  it  has  called  into  being  greater  gigantic  powers  of 
production  than  all  preceding  generations  combined.  The  subjection  of 
the  elements  of  nature,  the  development  of  machinery,  the  application  of 
chemistry  to  agriculture  and  manufactures,  railways,  telegraphs,  steam- 
ships, the  clearing  and  cultivation  of  whole  continents,  the  canalizing  of 


44  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

rivers, — large  populations,  whole  industrial  armies,  springing  up  as  if  by 
magic.  What  preceding  century  ever  even  dreamed  of  these  productive 
powers  slumbering  in  the  bosom  of  society  ? 

"  We  have  seen  that  these  means  of  production  and  traffic  which 
serve  as  the  foundation  of  middle  class  development,  originated  in  feudal 
times.  At  a  certain  stage  in  the  evolution  of  these  means,  the  conditions 
under  which  feudal  society  produced  and  exchanged — the  feudal  system 
of  agriculture  and  industry — in  a  word  the  feudal  conditions  of  property 
no  longer  sufficed  for  the  increased  productive  powers  of  mankind.  These 
conditions  then  became  a  hindrance  to  production;  instead  of  an  assistance^ 
they  were  so  many  fetters  which  had  to  be  broken  and  they  were  broken. 

"  They  were  superseded  by  unrestricted  competition  with  its  appropri- 
ate social  and  political  constitutions,  with  the  economic  and  political 
supremacy  of  the  middle  class.  At  the  present  moment  a  similar  move- 
ment is  going  on.  Modern  middle  class  society  which  has  revolutionized 
the  conditions  of  property  and  called  forth  such  coUossal  powers  of  pro- 
duction and  exchange,  resembles  the  wizard  who  loses  control  of  the  infer- 
nal powers  he  has  conjured.  The  history  of  manufactures  and  commerce 
has  been  for  many  years  the  history  of  the  revolts  of  the  modern  powers 
of  production  against  the  modern  conditions  of  production — against  the 
very  conditions  of  property  which  are  vital  to  the  existence  and  supremacy 
of  the  middle  class.  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  panics  or  commercial 
crises,  which  in  their  periodical  recurrence,  more  and  more  endanger  the 
existence  of  the  middle  class.  In  such  a  crisis  is  not  only  a  larger  quan- 
tity of  social  products  destroyed,  but  also  a  large  portion  of  the  produc- 
tive power  itself. 

"  During  such  panics  a  social  epidemic  breaks  forth,  which  in  all 
former  epochs  whould  have  appeared  a  paradox — the  epidemic  of  over- 
production. Society  finds  itself  suddenly  thrown  back  into  momentary 
barbarism;  famine  or  devastating  war  seem  to  have  deprived  it  of  the 
means  of  subsistence, — industry  and  trade  appear  destroyed.  And  is  it 
because  society  possesses  too  much  civilization,  too  much  sustenance,  too 
much  industry,  too  much  trade  ?  The  powers  of  production  at  the  dispo- 
sal of  society,  no  longer  serve  to  advance  the  middle  class  ownership  of 
property;  on  the  contrary  they  have  become  too  powerful  for  these  condi- 
tions; they  are  hampered  by  them  and  whenever  these  obstructions  are 
overcome,  they  throw  all  middle  class  society  into  confusion  and  imperil 
the  existence  of  middle  class  property.  The  social  system  of  the  middle 
class  has  become  too  narrow  to  hold  the  wealth  it  has  called  into  being. 
How  does  the  middle  class  try  to  withstand  these  panics  ?  On  the  one 
hand  by  destroying  masses  of  productive  power,  on  the  other  hand  by  the 
conquest  of  new  markets  and  by  exhausting  the  old  ones  more  thoroughly. 
That  is  they  prepare  the  way  for  still  more  universal  and  dangerous  pan- 
ics and  reduce  the  means  of  withstanding  them. 

"  The  weapons  with  which  the  middle  class  overthrew  feudalism  are 
now  turned  against  itself.  The  middle  class  not  only  has  forged  the 
weapons  for  its  own  destiTiction,  it  has  also  produced  the  men  who  will 
wield  these  weapons — the  modern  workmen,  the  proletariat. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  45 

"  In  the  same  degree  in  whicli  the  bourgeoisie  and  capital  have 
developed,  so  the  proletariat  has  developed.  And  this  is  the  class  that 
live  only  when  it  can  find  work,  and  it  finds  work  only  as  long  as  its  toil 
will  increase  caj^ital.  These  workers  who  must  sell  themselves  piecemeal 
to  the  highest  bidder,  like  all  other  articles  of  commerce,  are  equally 
exposed  to  all  the  variations  of  competition  and  to  all  the  fluctuations  of 
the  market. 

*■'  Through  the  extension  of  machinery  and  the  division  of  work,  daily 
labor  has  lost  all  its  independent  character  and  all  attraction  for  the  work- 
ingman.  He  becomes  merely  an  appendage  to  a  machine,  and  only  the 
simplest,  most  monotonous,  and  most  easily  learnt  operation  is  demanded. 
The  expenses  of  the  workingman,  are  therefore  almost  entirely  limited  to 
the  means  of  subsistence  required  for  his  support  and  for  the  propagation 
of  his  race. 

"  The  price  of  a  commodity,  likewise  of  labor,  is  measured  by  its  cost 
of  production.  In  the  same  degree  that  the  repulsiveness  of  labor 
increases,  wages  decrease.  Still  further  in  proportion  as  machinery  and 
division  of  labor  increase,  the  burdens  of  labor  increase  either  through 
increase  of  the  hours  of  labor,  or  in  the  quantity  of  work  required  in  a 
given  time,  or  through  increased  speed  of  machinery,  etc. 

"  Modem  industry  has  transformed  the  small  workshop  of  the  artisan 
into  the  larger  factory  of  the  capitalist.  Masses  of  operatives  crowded 
together  in  factories  are  organized  on  a  military  basis.  They  are  placed 
as  common  soldiers,  under  the  superintendence  of  a  complete  hierarchy  of 
officers  and  subalterns.  They  are  not  alone  slaves  of  the  middle  class,  of 
the  government;  but  they  are  also  daily  and  hourly  the  slaves  of  the 
machine,  the  foreman,  and  above  all  the  individual  employer.  This  des- 
potism is  all  the  more  hateful,  contemptible  and  aggravating  since  it 
openly  proclaims  that  gain  is  its  only  object  and  aim. 

"  The  less  skill  and  exertion  of  force  manual  labor  requires,  the  more 
modern  industry  develops;  the  more  the  labor  of  men  is  displaced  by  that 
of  women.  Neither  sex'  nor  age  have  any  social  existence  for  the  work- 
ing class.  They  are  merely  so  many  instruments  costing  different  sums 
according  to  age  or  sex. 

"  When  the  plundering  of  the  workingman  by  the  manufacturer  has 
ceased  in  so  far  that  he  has  been  paid  his  cash  wages,  then  step  in  the 
other  portions  of  the  middle  class  to  prey  upon  the  worker,  viz :  the  land- 
lord, storekeeper,  pawnbroker,  etc. 

"  The  small  middle  class,  the  artisans,  merchants,  mechanics,  shop- 
keepers, and  farmers,  are  all  doomed  to  fall  into  the  ranks  of  the  prole- 
tariat, because  their  small  capital  can  not  compete  with  that  of  the  mill- 
ionaire, and  partly  because  their  skill  is  depreciated  by  new  modes  of  pro- 
duction.    Thus  the  proletariat  recruits  from  all  classes  of  population. 

"  The  proletariat  has  passed  through  many  phases  of  development, 
but  its  struggle  with  the  bourgeoisie  dates  from  its  birth.  At  first  the 
struggle  is  waged  by  individual  workingmen,  then  by  the  workingmen  of 
one  factory,  next  by  the  workingmen  of  an  entire  trade  in  the  same  local- 
ity against  an  individual  employer  who  directly  despoils  them.  They 
attack  not  only  the  capitalistic  conditions  of  production,  but  even  the 


46  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

instruments  of  production ;  they  destroy  competing  merchandise  from  for- 
eign countries,  they  break  machines,  burn  factories  and  seek  to  regain  the 
position  of  the  workers  in  the  middle  ages.  At  this  stage  the  workers 
form  a  disorganized  mass  scattered  all  over  the  country  divided  by  com- 
petition. A  more  compact  union  then  comes,  not  so  much  the  effect  of 
their  own  development,  as  it  is  the  consequence  of  the  organization  of  the 
bourgeoisie.  This  class  requires  and  does  set  in  motion  the  whole  work- 
ing class  for  the  furtherance  of  its  own  political  interests.  And  thus  the 
working  class  do  not  fight  their  own  enemies,  but  rather  the  enemies  of 
their  masters,  such  as  absolute  monarchy  wherever  it  exists,  the  land- 
owners, the  non- employing  capitalists,  the  shopkeepers;  the  benefits  of 
every  such  movement  are  thus  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  bourgeo- 
isie, who  are  opposed  to  these  classes;  every  victory  thus  gained  is  won 
for  them. 

"  With  the  development  of  industry  not  only  does  the  proletariat 
increase,  it  also  concentrates  into  greater  masses  and  learns  its  own 
strength  and  power.  The  interests  and  conditions  of  different  trades  are 
more  and  more  equalized,  because  machinery  destroys  more  and  more  the 
difference  in  labor  and  reduces  wages  to  the  same  low  level  generally. 
The  increasing  competition  of  the  bourgeoisie  among  themselves  and  the 
commercial  panics  resulting  therefrom  make  the  wages  of  workingmen 
more  uncertain;  the  continual  and  rapid  improvement  in  machinery  makes 
their  conditions  in  life  more  precarious.  The  collisions  between  individual 
workingmen  and  individual  masters  assume  more  and  more  the  character 
of  outbreaks  between  the  two  classes.  The  workingmen  form  coalitions 
against  the  masters,  they  unite  in  trade  unions  to  maintain  their  wages. 
They  form  permanent  associations  for  mutual  aid  and  to  prepare  for  these 
occasional  outbreaks.  And  at  times  the  struggle  assumes  the  form 
of  riots.  From  time  to  time  the  workingmen  are  victorious,  but  only 
momentarily.  The  actual  result  of  their  struggle  is  not  immediate  suc- 
cess, but  leads  to  ever  increasing  combination  among  workingmen.  Their 
unions  are  favored  by  the  ever  growing  facility  of  communication,  fostered 
by  modern  industry,  whereby  the  workingmen  of  the  remotest  districts  are 
placed  in  closer  connection.  All  that  is  required  is  a  closer  union  to  cen- 
tralize the  many  local  struggles  of  the  same  character  into  one  grand 
national  struggle,  into  a  class  revolt.  Every  class  struggle  is  a  political 
one.  The  combination,  which  took  the  burghers  of  the  middle  ages  with 
their  common  highways  centuries  to  accomplish,  can  be  now  established 
in  a  few  years  by  the  modern  working  class,  through  the  aid  of  railroads. 

"  This  organization  of  the  workingmen  into  a  class  and  thereby  into 
a  political  party  is  often  destroyed  by  the  competition  of  workingmen 
among  themselves.  Yet  the  organization  of  labor  always  reappears,  and 
each  time  stronger,  firmer  and  more  extensive.  It  enforces  the  legal  rec- 
ognition of  some  particular  interest  of  the  workingmen,  profiting  by  dis- 
sensions among  the  bourgeoisie — as  in  the  case  of  the  ten-hour  law  in 
England.  The  dissensions  of  the  ruling  class  among  themselves  are  favor- 
able in  many  respects  to  the  advancement  of  the  proletariat.  The  bour- 
geoisie have  always  been  in  a  state  of  perpetual  warfare,  first  against  the 
aristocracy,  then  against  that  part  of  its  own  class  whose  interests  are 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM.  47 

opposed  to  the  further  development  of  industry,  and  thirdly  against  the 
bourgeoisie  of  other  countries.  In  all  these  struggles  it  is  obliged  to 
appeal  to  the  working  class,  to  invoke  their  help,  and  so  the  working  class 
is  drawn  into  political  movements.  It  therefore  places  in  the  hatids  of 
the  proletariat  its  own  means  of  advancement — and  furnishes  the  weapons, 
against  itself. 

"  As  we  have  already  seen,  the  evolution  of  industry  throws  a  large 
part  of  the  ruling  class  into  the  ranks  of  the  proletariat,  or  at  least  rend- 
ers their  condition  in  life  more  precarious.  Thus  a  mass  of  enlightened 
elements  are  driven  into  the  ranks  of  the  working  class. 

"  Finally,  as  the  settlement  of  this  class  struggle  nears  an  end,  then 
the  process  of  dissolution  goes  on  so  rapidly  within  the  ruling  class — within 
the  worn  out  body  politic — that  a  small  fi'action  of  this  class  separates 
from  the  bourgeoisie  and  unites  with  the  revolutionary  class — ^that  class 
which  holds  the  future  in  its  own  hands. 

"As  in  former  times,  a  part  of  the  nobility  joined  the  bourgeoisie,  so 
now  a  part  of  the  bourgeoisie  joins  the  proletariat,  and  particularly  that 
part  of  the  bourgeoisie  who  have  attained  a  theoretical  and  historical 
knowledge  of  the  whole  movement. 

"  The  working  class  is  the  only  true  revolutionary  class  among  all  the 
enemies  of  the  bourgeoisie  to-day.  The  remaining  classes  are  degenerat- 
ing; destroyed  by  modern  industry.     The  proletariat  is  its  only  product! 

"The  middle  class,  the  artisans,  the  shopkeepers,  mechanics  and 
farmers,  all  oppose  the  bourgeoisie  in  order  to  defend  their  position  as 
small  capitalists.  They  are  not  revolutionary,  but  conservative.  Yea 
more — ^they  are  reactionary,  they  seek  to  turn  backward  the  wheels  of 
history.  When  they  are  revolutionary,  they  are  only  so  in  view  of  their 
impending  absorption  by  the  proletariat,  hence  they  do  not  defend  their 
present  but  their  futui'e  interests;  they  abandon  their  own  position  in 
order  to  take  up  that  of  the  proletariat. 

"  The  vagabond  proletariat — the  rowdies  and  bummers — that  passive 
rot  of  the  lowest  strata  of  modem  society,  will  be  partially  drawn  into  this 
movement  but  from  its  peculiar  social  status  will  be  ever  found  a  ready 
and  venal  tool  for  reactionaiy  intrigues. 

"  The  conditions  of  existence  for  modem  society  are  already  destroyed 
through  the  conditions  imposed  upon  the  working  class.  The  working- 
man  has  no  property;  the  relation  in  which  he  stands  to  his  family  has  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  bourgois  family  relation.  Modem  industrial  labor, 
the  modem  slavery  of  labor  to  capital,  the  same  in  England  as  in  France, 
in  America  as  in  Germany,  has  divested  him  of  all  national  character. 
Law,  morality,  religion  are  for  him  only  so  much  middle  class  prejudice, 
behind  which  are  concealed  so  many  middle  class  interests. 

"  All  dominant  classes  in  the  past  have  sought  to  preserve  the  position 
they  attained,  by  subjecting  society  to  the  conditions  which  gave  those 
classes  their  possessions.  The  proletarians  can  gain  control  of  the  produc- 
tive powers  of  society — of  the  instruments  of  labor — only  by  annihilating 
all  acknowledged  modes  of  spoliation  by  which  they  have  been  plundered, 
and  with  it  the  entire  system  of   spoliation   and  robbery.     The  proletar- 


48  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

ians  have  nothing  of  their  own  to  protect,  they  must  destroy  all  existing 
capitalistic  security  and  capitalistic  guaranties. 

"  All  previous  movements  were  movements  of  minorities  or  in  the 
interest  of  minorities.  The  labor  movement  is  an  independent  movement 
of  the  immense  majority  in  behalf  of  the  immense  majority.  The  prole- 
tariat, the  lowest  strata  of  existing  society,  cannot  arise  without  disrupting 
the  entire  superstiTicture  of  classes  above  it,  and  that  hold  it  down. 

"  Although  the  struggle  of  the  proletariat  against  the  bourgeoisie  is 
not  national  in  its  nature,  yet  it  is  so  in  form.  The  proletariat  of  each 
country  must  naturally  first  settle  accounts  with  the  bourgeoisie  of  that 
country. 

"  We  have  thus  sketched  the  general  aspect  presented  by  the  devel- 
opment of  the  proletariat,  and  at  the  same  time  followed  the  more  or  less 
concealed  civil  war  pervading  modem  society  up  to  that  point,  where 
it  must  break  forth  into  open  revolution,  and  then  the  proletariat  will  arrive 
at  supremacy  through  the  forcible  downfall  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

"All  previous  forms  of  society  rested  as  we  have  seen,  upon  the 
antagonisms  of  oppressing  and  oppressed  classes.  But,  in  order  to  oppress 
a  class,  the  conditions  must  be  secured  under  which  it  can  at  least  continue 
its  slavish  existence.  The  serf  in  the  middle  ages  found  it  possible  to 
become  a  member  of  the  commune.  The  burghers  could  enter  the  middle 
class  even  under  the  yoke  of  feudal  monarchy.  The  modern  workingman 
on  the  contrary,  instead  of  improving  his  condition  with  the  progree^s  of 
industry,  is  daily  sinking  lower  and  lower,  even  below  the  conditions  of 
existence  for  his  own  class.  The  workingman  is  becoming  a  pauper,  and 
pauperism  develops  even  more  rapidily  than  population  and  wealth.  This 
clearly  proves  that  the  bourgeoisie  is  incapable  of  holding  its  position  any 
longer  as  the  ruling  class.  It  can  no  longer  force  upon  society  its  conditions 
as  the  rule  of  action.  It  is  unable  to  rule  because  it  is  unable  even  to 
secure  the  existence  of  its  slaves  in  their  slavery,  as  it  lets  them  sink  into 
a  lot  where  it  must  nourish  them,  instead  of  being  nourished  by  them. 
Society  can  not  longer  exist  under  this  class,  as  the  existence  of  this  class 
is  no  longer  compatible  with  that  of  society. 

"The  most  important  condition  for  the  existence  and  supremacy  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  is  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  private  individ- 
uals ;  the  formation  and  increase  of  capital. 

"  The  condition  upon  which  capital  depends  is  wages-labor.  Wages- 
labor  rests  exclusively  on  the  competition  of  the  workingmen  among  them- 
selves. The  progress  of  industry,  tends  to  supersede  the  isolated  action 
of  the  workingmen  by  the  revolutionary  union  of  their  class,  and  to  replace 
competition  by  association.  With  the  development  of  modern  industry 
therefore  the  basis  on  which  the  bourgeoisie  manages  production  and  appro- 
priates the  products  of  labor  is  drawn  from  under  its  feet.  Thus  the 
bourgeoisie  produces  its  own  grave.  Its  downfall  and  the  victory  of  the 
proletariat  are  alike  unavoidable." 


"  But  occult  theft,  theft  which  hides  itseK,  even  from  itseK,  and  is  legal,  respectable,  and  cow- 
ardly, corrupts  the  body  and  soul  of  man  to  the  last  fibre  of  them.  And  the  guilty  thieves  of 
Europe,  the  real  sources  of  all  deadly  war  in  it,  are  the  capitalists— that  is  to  say,  people  who  live  by 
perc^ntiages  on  the  labor  of  others,  instead  of  by  fair  wages  for  their  own.  Tlie  real  war  in  Europe, 
of  which  this  fighting  in  Paris  is  the  inauguration,  is  between  these  and  the  workman,  such  as  these 
have  made  him.  They  have  kept  him  poor,  ignorant  and  simple,  that  they  might,  without  his 
knowledge,  gather  for  themselves  tl^e  produce  of  his  toil.  At  last  a  dim  insight  into  the  fact  of  this 
dawns  on  him,  and  as  they  liave  made  him,  he  meets  them,  and  will  meet. — Extract  from  John  Rus- 
kirCs  letters  to  workmen  and  laborers  (Fobs  Clavigeba)  upon  the  Paris  Commune  of  1871. 


PAI^T   II. 


CHAPTER    I. 
ANARCHY    ON    TRIAL. 

"Black  says  they  are  humanitarians.     Don't  try,  gentlemen,  to  shirk  the 
issue.    Anarchy  is  on  trial ;  the  defendants  are  on  trial  for  treason  and  murder." 
Mr.  Black — The  indictment  does  not  charge  treason;  does  it,  Mr.  Grinnell? 
Mr.  Grinnell — No,  sir. — Extract  from  closing  speech  of  the  Staters  Attorney. 

Not  until  this  announcement,  in  the  closing  words  of  the  last  speech 
by  the  attorney  representing  the  State^  were  the  eight  defendants  apprised, 
ofl&cially,  or  otherwise,  that  the  question  at  issue  was  anarchy;  for  profess- 
ing which,  a  verdict  of  death  was  then  demanded. 

This  announcement  was  all  the  more  startling  from  the  fact  that  fre- 
quent attacks  had  been  made  upon  them  as  socialists  and  anarchists 
throughout  the  trial;  and  the  defendants  had  demanded  of  their  counsel 
the  privilege  of  introducing  witnesses,  to  explain  to  the  judge,  and  the 
country,  what  was  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  doctrine  of  which  they 
were  disciples,  if  not  the  apostles  in  America;  and  for  entertaining  which 
they  were  informed  the  death  sentence  was  now  invoked,  not,  however, 
until  a  few  moments  before  the  case  was  given  to  the  jury. 

IVIr.  Foster,  who  came  into  the  case,  with  some  local  reputation  in  the 
State  of  his  former  residence  as  a  criminal  lawyer,  persisted  in  trying  the 
same,  as  one  purely  of  homicide;  to  be  determined  upon  the  plain  issue  of 
law  and  facts  pertaining  to  the  alleged  killing  (as  charged  in  the  indict- 
ment) of  one  Matthias  J.  Degan. 

He  scouted  the  idea  that  either  the  court  or  jury  would  try  the  politi- 
cal opinions  of  the  defendants;  as  a  criminal  issue  to  be  adjudged  worthy 
of  death  as  social  heretics.  Mr.  Foster's  idea,  however,  prevailed,  though 
not  without  opposition  from  Capt.  Black,  who  was  overruled  by  the 
majority. 

In  the  words  of  a  Wisconsm,  Eaij  Claire,  correspondent  to  a  leading 
Chicago  journal: 

"Midway  in  the  trial,  while  this  question  was  still  unsettled,  there 
came  a  message  from  Chicago  to  Eau  Claire  summoniag  a  well-known  citi- 
zen of  this  city  to  appear  at  a  conclave  of  the  Chicago  anarchists.  The 
distinguished  citizen  was  no  other  than  Alderman  Charles  L.  James,  a 
person  who,  during  a  residence  of  over  twenty  years  in  this  community, 
has  V)een  generally  known  as  an  ^  advanced  type  of  anarchistic  socialism; 
that  he  had  laid  the  literatures  of  several  languages  under  contribution  to 
furnish  food  for  his  theorizing,  and,  finally,  that  besides  being  a  scholar 


52  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

himself  J  he  was  the  youngest  son  of  no  less  a  scholar  and  litterateur  than 
George  P.  B.  James,  the  historiographer  of  William  IV,  the  author  of  a 
whole  library  of  romances — no  other,  indeed,  than  the  '  Solitary  Horse- 
man.' 

"Mr.  James  was  one  of  the  victims  of  that  exclusive  policy  of  Mr. 
Foster  which  choked  the  explanation  of  the  propaganda.  He  came  back 
from  Chicago  wearing  a  disappointment  in  his  heart  for  that  he  was  not 
allowed  to  speak.  This  disappointment,  however,  he  shortly  assuaged  by 
addressing  a  communication  embodying  what  he  would  have  said,  to  the 
North  American  Review.  The  discriminating  editor  of  that  periodical 
published  the  letter  in  his  July  number,  of  which  the  following  is  an 
extract,  and  which  is  here  given,  because  it  is  an  embodyment  of  what 
would  have  been,  and  should  have  been,  presented  to  the  jury  and  the 
country,  on  the  trial  by  Mr.  James : 

"'Anarchy  from  an  Anarchist's  Standpoint. — Competition  among  cap- 
italists is  continually  reducing  the  price  of  commodities  to  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction. This  necessitates  increasingly  minute  subdivision  of  labor, 
destroying  that  technical  skill  which  made  the  old-fashioned  shoemaker  or 
blacksmith  independent;  degradiiig  the  laborers  into  portions  of  the 
machine  they  operate;  stimulating  the  competition  for  employment  which 
prevails  among  them;  increasing  the  frequency  of  those  periods  when 
they  are  thrown  out  of  work  and  reduced  from  comfort  to  beggary,  and  of 
course  contributing  to  increase  the  revolutionary  discontent  of  edu- 
cated men,  nui'tured  in  hope  and  enjoyment,  who  see  themselves  hopelessly 
distanced  by  those  whom  they  can  in  no  way  regard  as  their  superiors. 
The  chasm  which  threatens  to  engulf  our  social  system  is  still  further 
widened  by  the  destruction  of  small  capitalists  in  the  battle  of  competition 
and  the  growth  of  great  monopolies,  advancing  pari  passu  with  the  pau- 
perization of  the  laboring  class.  The  miseries  and  dangers  thus  engendered 
by  the  very  nature  of  modern  trade  and  industry  are  greatly  aggravated 
by  the  periodical  gorging  of  the  market  with  goods  ])roduced  in  excess  of 
the  demand  during  seasons  of  speculation,  and  the  consequent  forced 
migration  of  capital  to  other  branches  by  the  dreary  road  along  which  lie 
bankruptcy,  stagnation,  reduced  consumption,  reduced  production,  slow 
liquidation,  and  that  gradual  revival  of  business  which  closes  a  financial 
crisis.  The  critical  character  of  these  periodical  revulsions  is  greatly 
aggravated  by  the  fluctuations  of  that  uncertain  currency  which  speculative 
business  has  everywhere  introduced.  It  has  so  far  been  palliated  by  the 
extension  of  the  market  into  new  countries — America,  India,  Egypt, 
China,  etc.  But  when  this  process  reaches  an  end  and  one  commercial 
system  extends  over  the  world,  then,  if  not  sooner,  prices  will  actually  fall 
to  the  cost  of  production,  and  the  catastrophe  of  production  for  profit  will 
be  reached.  Anarchy,  therefore,  according  to  anarchists,  is  the  inevitable 
end  of  the  present  drift  and  tendency  of  things.  Trimmers  may  devise 
means  to  jnit  it  off;  Napoleons  and  Bismarcks  may,  for  a  time,  stifle  it  in 
blood,  but  the  longer  it  is  deferred  the  more  violent  will  be  the  reaction 
which  brings  it  in  at  last.  That  only  is  wise  statesmanship  which  gives 
up  moribund  institutions  to  die.  That  only  is  reform  which  anticipates 
in  a  less  painful  manner  the  work  of  revolution.' 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  53 

Dyer  D.  Lum,  C.  S.  Griffin,  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Parsons,  Mrs.  Holmes,  Mrs. 
Ames,  A.  W.  Simpson,  John  A.  Henry,  William  Holmes,  and  many  other 
well-known  anarchists,  including  the  eight  prisoners  at  the  bar,  requested 
repeatedly  throughout  the  trial  permission  to  exj)lain  and  define  to  the 
court  and  jury  the  speculative  philosophy  known  as  anarchism,  but  were 
always  told  by  the  lawyers  for  the  defense  that  it  was  entirely  unnesh.ary, 
since  their  belief  in  the  doctrines  of  "anarchy"  was  not  ui)on  trial.  That 
anarchy  really  was  on  trial  was  made  known  when  it  was  too  late  to 
explain  or  define  it.  At  the  close  of  the  trial  the  prosecution  sprung  a 
new  case  upon  the  defendants,  a  charge  which  was  not  in  the  indictment, 
and  against  which  these  defendants  were  not  permitted  to  defend  them- 
selves. 

In  their  closing  speeches  the  prosecution  declared:  "Law  is  upon 
trial.  Anarchy  is  on  trial.  These  men  have  been  selected,  picked  out  by 
the  grand  jury  and  indicted  because  they  were  leaders.  They  are  no  more 
guilty  than  the  thousands  who  follow  them.  Gentlemen  of  the  jury;  con- 
vict these  men,  make  examples  of  them,  hang  them  and  you  save  our  insti- 
tutions, our  society." 

It  is  mainly,  if  not  wholly,  on  account  of  the  declarations  made  by 
the  prosecution  in  the  paragraph  quoted  above  that  the  author  has  written 
and  compiled  this  work,  to  wit:  that  not  being  permitted  to  defend  or 
explain  the  belief  we  entertained;  that  having  been  condemned  unheard 
for  social  heresy, — the  world  which  is  our  final  judge  and  to  which  we 
appeal,  may  know,  as  it  has  a  right  to  know,  in  what  our  offense  consisted- 


CHAPTER   II. 

VIEWS    OF    THE    PRISONERS. 

Following  are  extracts  from  the  speeches  of  the  eight  Chicago  anarch- 
ists, relating  to  anarchy,  made  by  them  in  reply  to  the  question  of  the 
court  why  sentence  should  not  be  pronounced;  including  also  other  extracts 
from  their  writings: 

August  Spies  on  Anarchy. 

*  *  *  "  From  their  testimony  one  is  forced  to  conclude  that  we 
had,  in  our  sj)eech^s  and  publications,  preached  nothing  else  but  destruc- 
tion and  dynamite.  The  court  has  this  morning  stated  that  there  is  no 
case  in  history  like  this.  I  have  noticed,  during  this  trial,  that  the  gentle- 
men of  the  legal  ])rofession  are  not  well  versed  in  history.  In  all  histori- 
cal cases  of  this  kind  truth  had  to  be  perverted  by  the  priests  of  the  estab- 
lished power  that  was  nearing  its  end. 

"What  have  we  said  in  our  speeches  and  publications? 

"We  have  interpreted  to  the  people  their  conditions  and  relations  in 
society.     We  have  explained  to  them  the  different  social  phenomena  and 


54  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHISM. 

the  social  laws  and  circmnstances  under  which  they  occur.  We  have,  by 
way  of  scientific  investigation,  incontrovertibly  proved  and  brought  to  their 
knowledge  that  the  system  of  wages  is  the  root  of  the  present  social 
iniquities — iniquities  so  monstrous  that  they  cry  to  Heaven.  We  have 
further  said  that  the  wage  system,  as  a  specific  form  of  social  develop- 
ment, would,  by  the  necessity  of  logic,  have  to  make  room  for  higher  forms 
of  civilization;  that  the  wage  system  must  prepare  the  way  and  furnish 
the  foundation  for  a  social  system  of  co-operation — that  is,  socialism. 
That  whether  this  or  that  theory,  this  or  that  scheme  regarding  future 
arrangements  were  accepted  was  not  a  matter  of  choice,  but  one  of  histori- 
cal necessity,  and  that  to  us  the  tendency  of  progress  seemed  to  be 
anarchism — that  is,  a  free  society  without  kings  or  classes — a  society  of 
sovereigns  in  which  the  liberty  and  economic  equality  of  all  would  furnish 
an  unshakable  equilibrium  as  a  foundation  and  condition  of  natural  order. 

"It  is  not  likely  that  the  honorable  Bonfield  and  Grinnell  can  conceive 
of  a  social  order  not  held  intact  by  the  policeman's  club  and  pistol,  nor 
of  a  free  society  without  prisons,  gallows,  and  State's  attorneys.  In  such 
a  society  they  probably  fail  to  find  a  place  for  themselves.  And  is  this 
the  reason  why  anarchism  is  such  a  *  pernicious  and  damnable  doctrine?' 

"  Grinnell  has  intimated  to  us  that  anarchism  was  on  trial.  The  theory 
of  anarchism  belongs  to  the  realm  of  speculative  philosophy.  There  was 
not  a  syllable  said  about  anarchism  at  the  Haymarket  meeting.  At  that 
meeting  the  very  popular  theme  of  reducing  the  hours  of  toil  was  dis- 
cussed. But,  'anarchism  is  on  trial'  foams  Mr.  Grinnell.  If  that  is  the 
case,  your  honor,  very  well;  you  may  sentence  me,  for  I  am  an  anarchist. 
I  believe  with  Buckle,  with  Paine,  Jefferson,  Emerson,  and  Spencer,  and 
many  other  great  thinkers  of  this  century,  that  the  state  of  castes  and 
classes — the  stale  where  one  class  dominates  over  and  lives  upon  the  labor 
of  another  class,  and  calls  this  order — yes;  I  believe  that  this  barbaric 
form  of  social  organization,  with  its  legalized  plunder  and  murder,  is 
doomed  to  die,  and  make  room  for  a  free  society,  voluntary  association,  or 
universal  brotherhood,  if  you  like.  You  may  pronounce  the  sentence  upon 
me,  honorable  judge,  but  let  the  world  know  that  in  A.  D.  1886,  in  the 
State  of  Illinois,  eight  men  were  sentenced  to  death  because  they  believed 
in  a  better  future ;  because  they  had  not  lost  their  faith  in  the  ultimate 
Tictory  of  liberty  and  justice !  'You  have  taught  the  destruction  of  society 
and  civilization,'  says  the  tool  and  agent  of  the  Bankers'  and  Citizens' 
Association,  Grinnell.  That  man  has  yet  to  learn  what  civilization  is.  It 
is  the  old,  old  argument  against  human  progress.  Read  the  history  of 
Greece,  of  Home;  read  that  of  Venice;  look  over  the  dark  pages  of  the 
church,  and  follow  the  thorny  path,  of  science.  'No  change!  No  change! 
You  would  destroy  society  and  civilization!'  has  ever  been  the  cry  of  the 
ruling  classes.  They  are  so  comfortably  situated  under  the  prevailing  sys- 
tem that  they  naturally  abhor  and  fear  even  the  slightest  change.  Their 
privileges  are  as  dear  to  them  as  life  itself,  and  eveiy  change  threatens 
these  privileges.  But  civilization  is  a  ladder  whose  steps  are  monuments 
of  such  changes !  Without  these  social  changes — all  brought  about  against 
the  will  and  the  force  of  the  ruling  classes — there  would  be  no  civiliza- 
tion.    As  to  the  destruction  of  society  which  we  have  been  accused  of  seek- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  55 

lug,  soiinds  this  not  like  one  of  ^sop's  fables — like  the  cunning  of  the  fox  ? 
We,  who  have  jeopardized  our  lives  to  save  society  from  the  fiend — the 
fiend  who  has  grasped  her  by  the  throat;  who  sucks  her  life-blood,  who 
devours  her  children — we,  who  would  heal  her  bleeding  wounds,  who 
would  free  her  from  the  fetters  you  have  wrought  around  her;  from  the 
misery  you  have  brought  upon  her — we  her  enemies!! 

"Honorable  judge,  the  demons  of  hell  will  join  in  the  laughter  this 
irony  provokes! 

"We  have  preached  dynamite.  Yes,  we  have  predicted  from  the  les- 
sons history  teaches,  that  the  ruling  classes  of  to-day  would  no  more  listen 
to  the  voice  of  reason  than  their  predecessors;  that  they  would  attempt 
by  brute  force  to  stay  the  wheel  of  progress.  Is  it  a  lie,  or  was  it  the 
truTh  we  told  ?  Are  not  already  the  large  industries  of  this  once  free  coun- 
try conducted  under  the  surveilance  of  the  police,  the  detective,  the  military 
and  the  sheriffs — and  is  this  return  to  militancy  not  developing  from  day  to 
day.  American  sovereigns — think  of  it — working  like  the  galley  convicts 
under  military  guards!  We  have  predicted  this,  and  predict  that  soon 
these  conditions  will  grow  unbearable.  What  then  ?  The  mandate  of  the 
feudal  lords  of  our  time  is  slavery,  starvation  and  death!  This  has  been 
their  programme  for  the  past  years.  We  have  said  to  the  toilers,  that 
science  had  penetrated  the  mystery  of  nature — that  from  Jove's  head  once 
more  has  sprung  a  Minerva — dynamite!  If  this  declaration  is  synony- 
mous with  murder,  why  not  charge  those  with  the  crime  to  whom  we  owe 
the  invention  ?  To  charge  us  with  an  attempt  to  overthrow  the  present 
system  on  or  about  May  4th  by  force,  and  then  establish  anarchy,  is  t Jo 
absurd  a  statement,  I  think,  even  for  a  political  office-holder  to  make.  If 
Grinnell  belived  that  we  attempted  such  a  thing,  why  did  he  not  have  Dr. 
Bluthardt  make  an  inquiiy  as  to  our  sanity  ?  Only  mad  men  could  have 
planned  such  a  brilliant  scheme,  and  mad  people  cannot  be  indicted  or 
convicted  of  murder.  If  there  had  existed  anything  like  a  conspiracy  or 
a  pre-arragement,  does  your  honor  believe  that  events  would  not  have 
taken  a  different  course  than  they  did  on  that  evening  and  later  ?  This 
'conspiracy'  nonsense  is  based  upon  an  oration  I  delivered  on  the  anni- 
versary of  Washington's  birthday  at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  more  than  a 
year  and  a  half  ago.  I  had  been  invited  by  the  Knights  of  Labor  for  that 
purpose.  I  dwelt  upon  the  fact  that  our  country  was  far  fi-om  being  what 
the  great  revolutionists  of  the  last  century  had  intended  it  to  be.  I  said 
that  those  men  if  they  lived  to-day  would  clean  the  Augean  stables  with 
iron  brooms,  and  that  they,  too,  would  undoubtedly  be  characterized  as 
'  wild  socialists.'  It  is  not  unlikely  that  I  said  Washington  would  have  been 
hanged  for  treason  if  the  revolution  had  failed.  Grinnell  made  this 
'sacreligious  remark'  his  main  arrow  against  me.  Why?  Because  he 
intended  to  inveigh  the  know-nothing  spirit  against  us.  But  who  will  deny 
the  correctness  of  the  statement  ?  That  I  should  have  compared  myself 
with  Washington,  is  a  base  lie.  But  if  I  had,  would  that  be  murder  ?  I 
may  have  told  that  individual  who  appeared  here  as  a  witness  that  the 
workingmen  should  procure  arms,'  as  force  would  in  all  probability  be  the 
ultima  ratio ;  and  that  in  Chicago  there  were  so  and  so  many  armed,  but 
J[  certainly  did  not  say  that  we  proposed  to  'inaugurate  the  social  revolu- 


56  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAHCHISM. 

tion.'  And  let  me  say  here:  Revolutions  are  no  more  made  than  earth- 
quakes and  cyclones.  Revolutions  are  the  effect  of  certain  causes  and 
conditions.  I  have  made  social  philosophy  a  specific  study  for  more  than 
ten  years,  and  I  could  not  have  given  vent  to  such  nonsense!  I  do  believe^ 
however,  that  the  revolution  is  n^ar  at  hand — in  fact,  that  it  is  upon  us. 
But  is  the  physician  responsible  for  the  death  of  the  patient  because  he 
foretold  that  death  ?  If  any  one  is  to  be  blamed  for  the  coming  revolution 
it  is  the  ruling  class  who  steadily  refused  to  make  concessions  as  reforms- 
became  necessary;  who  maintain  that  they  can  call  a  halt  to  progress,  and 
dictate  a  stand- still  to  the  enternal  forces,  of  which  they  themselves  are 
but  the  whimsical  creation. 

"  The  position  generally  taken  in  this  case  is  that  we  are  morally 
responsible  for  the  police  riot  on  May  4th.  Four  or  five  years  ago  Tsat 
in  this  very  court  room  as  a  witness.  The  workingmen  had  been  trying 
to  obtain  redress  in  a  lawful  manner.  They  had  voted,  and  among  others, 
had  elected  their  aldermanic  candidate  from  the  fourteenth  ward.  But  the 
street  car  company  did  not  like  that  man.  And  two  of  the  three  election 
judges  of  one  precinct,  knowing  this,  took  the  ballot  box  to  their  home 
and  '  corrected '  the  election  returns,  so  as  to  cheat  the  constituents  of 
the  elected  candidate  of  their  rightful  representative,  and  give  the  repre- 
sentation to  the  benevolent  street  car  monopoly.  The  workingmen  spent 
$1,500  in  the  prosecution  of  the  perpetrators  of  this  crime.  The  proof 
against  them  was  so  overwhelming  that  they  confessed  to  having  falsified 
the  returns  and  forged  the  official  documents.  Judge  Gardner,  who  was 
presiding  in  this  court,  acquitted  them,  stating  that  '  that  act  had  appar- 
ently not  been  prompted  by  criminal  intent.'  I  will  make  no  comment. 
But  when  we  approach  the  field  of  moral  responsibility,  it  has  an  immense 
scope!  Every  man  who  has  in  the  past  assisted  in  thwarting  the 
efforts  of  those  seeking  reform  is  responsible  for  the  existence  of  the  revo- 
lutionists in  this  city  to-day!  Those,  however,  who  have  sought  to  bring- 
about  reforms  must  be  exempted  from  the  responsibility — and  to  these  / 
belong. 

"  If  the  verdict  is  based  upon  the  assumption  of  moral  responsibility,. 
your  honor,  I  give  this  as  a  reason  why  sentence  should  not  be  passed. 

*'  If  the  opinion  of  the  court  given  this  morning  is  good  law,  then 
there  is  no  person  in  this  country  who  could  not  lawfully  be  hanged.  I 
vouch  that,  upon  the  very  laws  you  have  read,  there  is  no  person  in  this 
courtroom  now  who  could  not  be  'fairly,  impartially  and  lawfully' 
hanged!  Fouche,  Napoleon's  right  bower,  once  said  to  his  master:  '  Give 
me  a  line  that  any  one  man  has  ever  written,  and  I  will  bring  him  to  the 
scaffold.'  And  this  court  has  done  essentially  the  same.  Upon  that  law 
every  person  in  this  country  can  be  indicted  for  conspiracy,  and,  as  the  case- 
may  be,  for  murder.  Every  member  of  a  trade  union.  Knights  of  Labor, 
or  any  other  labor  organization,  can  then  be  convicted  of  conspiracy, 
and  in  cases  of  violence,  for  which  they  may  not  be  responsible  at  all,  of 
murder,  as  we  have  been.  This  precedent  once  established,  and  you  force- 
the  masses  who  are  now  agitating  in  a  peaceable  way  into  open  rebellion  1 
You  thereby  shut  oft*  the  last  safety  valve — and  the  blood  which  will  h& 
shed,  the  blood  of  the  innocent — it  will  come  upon  your  heads! 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM.  57 

"  Seven  policemen  have  died,'  said  Grinnell,  suggestively  winking  at 
the  jury.  You  want  a  life  for  a  life,  and  have  convicted  an  equal  num- 
ber of  men,  of  whom  it  cannot  be  truthfully  said  that  they  had  anything 
whatsoever  to  do  with  the  killing  of  Bonfield's  victims.  The  very  same 
principle  of  jurisprudence  we  find  ahaong  various  savage  tribes.  Injuries 
among  them  are  equalized,  so  to  speak.  The  Chinooks  and  the  Arabs, 
for  instance,  would  demand  the  life  of  an  enemy  for  every  death  that 
they  had  suffered  at  their  enemy's  hands.  They  were  not  particular  in 
regard  to  the  persons,  just  so  long  as  they  had  a  life  for  a  life.  This 
principle  also  prevails  to-day  among  the  natives  of  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
If  we  are  to  be  hanged  on  this  principle  then  let  us  know  it,  and  let  the 
world  know  what  a  civilized  and  christian  country  it  is,  in  which  the 
Goulds,  the  Vanderbilts,  the  Stanf ords,  the  Fields,  Armours,  and  other 
local  money  hamsters  have  come  to  the  rescue  of  liberty  and  justice! 

"  Grinnell  has  repeatedly  stated  that  our  country  is  an  enlightened 
country,  {sarcastically.)  The  verdict  fully  corroborates  the  assertion! 
This  verdict  against  us  is  the  anathema  of  the  wealthy  classes  over  their 
despoiled  victims — the  vast  army  of  wage  workers  and  farmers.  If  your 
honor  would  not  have  these  people  believe  this ;  if  you  would  not  have  them 
believe  that  we  have  once  more  arrived  at  the  Spartan  Senate,  the  Athenian 
Areopagus,  the  Venetian  Council  of  Ten,  etc.,  then  sentence  should  not  be 
pronounced.  But,  if  you  think  that  by  hanging  us,  you  can  stamp  out 
the  labor  movement — the  movement  from  which  the  downtrodden  millions, 
the  millions  who  toil  and  live  in  want  and  misery — the  wage  slaves — 
expect  salvation — if  this  is  your  opinion,  then  hang  us!  Here  you  will 
tread  upon  a  spark,  but  there,  and  there;  and  behind  you,  and  in  front  of 
you,  and  everywhere,  flames  will  blaze  up.  It  is  a  subterranean  fire.  You 
cannot  put  it  out. 

"  The  ground  is  on  fire  upon  which  you  stand.  You  can't  under- 
stand it.  You  don't  believe  in  magical  arts,  as  your  grandfathers  did  wha 
burned  witches  at  the  stake,  but  you  do  believe  in  conspiracies;  you  believe 
that  all  these  occurrences  of  late  are  the  work  of  conspirators !  You  resem- 
ble the  child  that  is  looking  for  his  picture  behind  the  mirror.  What  you. 
see,  and  what  you  try  to  grasp  is  nothing  but  the  deceptive  reflex  of  the 
stings  of  your  bad  conscience.  You  want  to  '  stamp  out  the  conspirators' — 
the  '  agitators  ?'  Ah,  stamp  out  every  factory  lord  who  has  grown  wealthy 
upon  the  unpaid  labor  for  his  employes.  Stamp  out  every  landlord  who 
has  amassed  fortunes  fi'om  the  rent  of  over-burdened  workingmen  and 
farmers.  Stamp  out  every  machine  that  is  revolutionizing  industry  and 
agriculture,  that  intensifies  the  production  and  ruins  the  producer,  thai 
increases  the  national  wealth,  while  the  creator  of  all  these  things  stands 
amidst  them,  tantalized  with  hunger!  Stamp  out  the  railroads,  the  tele- 
graph, the  telephone,  steam  and  yourselves — for  everything  breathes  the 
revolutionary  spirit. 

"You,  gentlemen,  are  the  revolutionists!  You  rebel  against  the- 
effects  of  social  conditions  which  have  tossed  you,  by  the  fair  hand  of  for- 
tune, into  a  magnificent  paradise.  Without  inquiring,  you  imagine  that 
no  one  else  has  a  right  in  that  place.  You  insist  that  you  are  the  chosen, 
ones,  the  sole  proprietors.     The  forces  that  tossed  you  into  the  paradise,, 


:58  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

the  industral  forces,  are  still  at  work.  They  are  growing  more  active  and 
intense  from  day  to  day.  Their  tendency  is  to  elevate  all  mankind  to  the 
same  level,  to  have  all  humanity  share  in  the  paradise  you  now  monopo- 
lize. You,  in  your  blindness,  think  you  can  stop  the  tidal  wave  of  civili- 
zation, and  human  emancipation  by  placing  a  few  policemen,  a  few  gat- 
ling  guns,  and  some  regiments  of  militia  on  the  shore — you  think  you  can 
frighten  the  rising  waves  back  into  the  unfathomable  depths,  whence  they 
have  risen,  by  erecting  a  few  gallows  in  the  perspective.  You,  who 
■oppose  the  natural  course  of  things,  you  are  the  real  revolutionists.  You 
and  you  alone  are  the  conspirators  and  destructionists ! 

"  Said  the  court  yesterday,  in  referring  to  the  board  of  trade  demon- 
stration: 'These  men  started  out  with  the  express  purpose  of  sacking 
tne  board  of  trade  building.'  While  I  can't  see  what  sense  there  would 
have  been  in  such  an  undertaking,  and  while  I  know  that  the  said  demons- 
tration was  arranged  simply  as  a  means  of  propaganda  against  the  system 
that  legalizes  the  respectable  business  carried  on  there,  I  will  assume  that 
the  three  thousand  workingmen  who  marched  in  that  procession  really 
intended  to  sack  the  building.  In  this  case  they  would  have  differed  from 
the  respectable  board  of  trade  men  only  in  this — that  they  sought  to 
recover  property  in  an  unlawful  way,  while  the  others  sack  the  entire 
country  lawfully  and  unlawfully — ^this  being  their  respectable  profession. 
This  court  of  "justice  and  equity"  proclaims  the  principle  that  when  two 
persons  do  the  same  thing,  it  is  not  the  same  thing.  I  thank  the  court 
for  this  confession.  It  contains  all  that  we  have  taught,  and  for  which  we 
are  to  be  hanged,  in  a  nut  shell !  Theft  is  a  felony  when  resorted  to  in 
self  preservation  by  the  other  class.  Eapine  and  pillage  are  the  order  of 
a  certain  class  of  gentlemen  who  find  this  mode  of  earning  a  livelihood 
easier  and  preferable  to  honest  labor — this  is  the  kind  of  order  we  have 
attempted,  and  are  now  trying,  and  will  try  as  long  as  we  live  to  do  away 
with.  Look  on  the  economic  battle  fields.  Behold  the  carnage  and  plun- 
der of  the  christian  patricians !  Accompany  me  to  the  quarters  of  the 
wealth-creators  in  this  city.  Go  with  me  to  the  half-starved  miners  of 
the  Hocking  Valley.  Look  at  the  pariahs  in  the  Monongahela  Valley,  and 
many  other  mining  districts  in  this  country,  or  pass  along  the  railroads  of 
that  great  and  most  orderly  and  law-abiding  citizen.  Jay  Gould.  And 
tell  me  whether  this  order  has  in  it  any  moral  principle  for  which  it  should 
be  preserved.  I  say  that  the  preservation  of  such  an  order  is  criminal, 
is  murderous.  It  means  the  preservation  of  the  systematic  destruction  of 
children  and  women  in  factories.  It  means  the  preservation  of  enforced 
idleness  of  large  armies  of  men  and  their  degradation.  It  means  the  pre- 
servation of  misery,  want,  and  servility  on  one  hand,  and  the  dangerous 
accumulation  of  spoils,  idleness,  voluptuousness  and  tyranny  on  the  other. 
It  means  the  preservation  of  vice  in  every  form. 

"  And  last  but  not  least,  it  means  the  preservation  of  the  class  strug- 
gle of  strikes,  riots  and  bloodshed.  That  is  your  'order,'  gentlemen; 
jes,  and  it  is  worthy  of  you  to  be  the  champions  of  such  an  order.  You 
are  eminently  fitted  for  that  role.     You  have  my  compliments ! 

"  Grinnell  spoke  of  Victor  Hugo.  I  need  not  repeat  what  he  said, 
but  will   answer  him  in  the  language  of  one  of  our  German  philosphers : 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    .VNAECHISM.  59 

*  Our  bourgeoisie  erect  monuments  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  the  classics. 
If  they  had  read  them  they  would  burn  them !'  Why,  amongst  the  arti- 
cles read  here  from  the  Arheiter-Zeitung,  put  in  evidence  by  the  State,  by 
-which  they  intend  to  convince  the  jury  of  the  dangerous  character  of  the 
accused  anarchists,  is  an  extract  from  Goethe's  Faust. 

'  Es  erben  sich  Gesetz  und  Rechte, 
We  eine  ew'ge  Krankheit  fort,'  etc. 

('Law  and  class  privileges  are  transmitted  like  an  hereditary  disease.') 
And  IVIr.  Ingham  in  his  speech  told  the  christian  jurors  that  our  comrades, 
the  Paris  communists,  had  in  1871,  dethroned  God,  the  Almighty,  and  had 
put  up  in  his  place  a  low  prostitute.  The  effect  was  marvelous !  The 
good  christians  were  shocked. 

"  I  wish  your  honor  would  inform  the  learned  gentlemen  that  the 
-episode  related  occurred  in  Paris  nearly  a  century  ago,  and  that  the  sacri- 
legious perpetrators  were  the  cotemporaries  of  the  founders  of  the  Repub- 
lic— and  among  them  was  Thomas  Paine.  Nor  was  the  woman  a  prosti- 
tute, but  a  good  citoyenne  de  Paris,  who  served  on  that  occasion  simply 
as  an  allegory  of  the  goddess  of  reason. 

"  Referring  to  Most's  letter,  read  here,  Mr.  Ingham  said:  *  They,' 
meaning  Most  and  myself,  '  They  might  have  destroyed  thousands  of 
innocent  lives  in  the  Hocking  Valley  with  that  dynamite.'  I  have  said 
all  I  know  about  the  letter  on  the  witness  stand,  but  will  add  that  two 
years  ago  I  went  through  the  Hocking  Valley  as  a  correspondent.  While 
there  I  saw  hundreds  of  lives  in  the  process  of  slow  destruction,  gradual 
destruction.  There  was  no  dynamite,  nor  were  they  Anarchists  who  did 
that  diabolical  work.  It  was  the  work  of  a  party  of  highly  respectable 
monopolists,  law-abiding  citizens,  if  you  please.  It  is  needless  to  say  the 
murderers  were  never  indicted.  The  press  had  little  to  say,  and  the  State 
of  Ohio  assisted  them.  What  a  terror  it  would  have  created  if  the  victims 
of  this  diabolical  plot  had  resented  and  blown  some  of  those  respectable 
cut-throats  to  atoms.  When,  in  East  St.  Louis,  Jay  Gould's  hirelings, 
'  the  men  of  grit,'  shot  down  in  cold  blood  and  killed  six  inoffensive 
workingmen  and  women,  there  was  very  little  said,  and  the  grand  jury 
refused  to  indict  the  gentlemen.  It  was  the  same  way  in  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee and  other  places.  A  Chicago  furniture  manufacturer  shot  down 
and  seriously  wounded  two  striking  workingmen  last  spring.  He  was 
held  over  to  the  grand  jury.  The  grand  jury  refused  to  indict  the  gen- 
tleman. 

"  But  when,  on  one  occasion,  a  workingman  in  self  defense  resisted 
the  murderous  attempt  of  the  police  and  threw  a  bomb,  and  for  once  blood 
flowed  on  the  other  side,  then  a  terrific  howl  went  up  from  the  land; 
'  Conspiracy  has  attacked  vested  rights !'  And  eight  victims  are  demanded 
for  it.  There  has  been  much  said  about  the  public  sentiment.  There 
has  been  much  said  about  the  public  clamor.  Why,  it  is  a  fact,  that  no 
citizen  dared  express  another  opinion  than  that  prescribed  by  the  author- 
ities of  the  State,  for  if  one  had' done  otherwise,  he  would  have  been 
locked  up;  he  might  have  been  sent  to  the  gallows  to  swing,  as  they  will 


60  THE  PHIHLOSOPHY  OF  ANARCHISM. 

have  tlie  pleasure  of  doing  with  us,  if  the  decree  of  our   '  honorable  court' 
is  consummated. 

"'These  men,'  Grinnell  said  repeatedly,  ' have  no  principles ;  they 
are  common  murderers,  assassins,  robbers,'  etc.  I  admit  that  our  aspira- 
tions and  objects  are  incomprehensible  to  unprincipled  ruffians,  but  surely 
for  this  we  are  not  to  be  blamed.  The  assertion,  if  I  mistake  not,  was 
based  on  the  ground  that  we  sought  to  destroy  property.  Whether  this 
perversion  of  fact  was  intentional,  I  know  not.  But  in  justification  of  our 
doctrines  I  will  say  that  the  assertion  is  an  infamous  falsehood.  Articles 
have  been  read  here  from  the  Arheiter-Zeitung  and  Alarm  to  show  the 
dangerous  characters  of  the  defendants.  The  files  of  the  Arheiter-Zeitung 
and  Alarm  have  been  searched  for  the  past  years.  Those  articles  which 
"generally  commented  upon  some  atrocity  committed  by  the  authorities 
upon  striking  workingmen  were  picked  out  and  read  to  you.  Other  arti- 
cles were  not  read  to  the  court.  Other  articles  were  not  what  was  wanted. 
The  State's  Attorney  upon  those  articles  (who  well  knows  that  he  tells  a 
falsehood  when  he  says  it),  asserts  that  'these  men  have  no  principle.' 

"  A  few  weeks  before  I  was  arrested  and  charged  with  the  crime  Jor 
which  I  have  been  convicted,  I  was  invited  by  the  clergymen  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church  to  lecture  upon  the  subject  of  socialism,  and  debate 
with  them.  This  took  place  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel.  And  so  that  it 
cannot  be  said  that  after  I  have  been  arrested,  after  I  have  been  indicted, 
and  after  I  have  been  convicted,  I  have  put  together  some  principles  to 
justify  my  action,  I  will  read  what  I  said  then — 

"  Capt.  Black:     *Give  the  date  of  the  paper.' 

"Me.  Spies:     'January  9,  1886.' 

"Capt.  Black:     'What  paper,  the  Alarm f 

"Mr.  Spies:  'The  Alarm.  When  I  was  asked  upon  that  occasion 
what  socialism  was,  I  said  this : 

•'Socialism  is  simply  a  resume  of  the  phenomena  of  the  social  life  of 
the  past  and  present  traced  to  their  fundamental  causes,  and  brought  into 
logical  connection  with  one  another.  It  rests  upon  the  established  fact 
that  the  economic  conditions  and  institutions  of  a  people  form  the  ground 
work  of  all  their  social  conditions,  of  their  ideas — aye,  even  of  their  relig- 
ion, and  further,  that  all  changes  of  economic  conditions,  every  step  in 
advance,  arises  from  the  struggles  between  the  dominating  and  dominated 
class  in  difPerent  ages.  You,  gentlemen,  cannot  place  yourselves  at  this 
standpoint  of  speculative  science;  your  profession  demands  that  you 
occupy  the  opposite  position,  that  which  professes  acquaintance  with  things 
as  they  actually  exist,  but  which  presumes  a  thorough  understanding  of 
matters  which  to  ordinary  mortals  are  entirely  incomprehensible.  It  is- 
for  this  reason  that  you  cannot  become  Socialists  (cries  of  'Oh!  oh!'). 
Lest  you  should  be  unable  to  exactly  grasp  my  meaning,  however,  I  will 
now  state  the  matter  a  little  more  plainly.  It  cannot  be  unknown  to  you 
that  in  the  course  of  this  century  there  have  appeared  an  infinite  number 
of  inventions  and  discoveries,  which  have  brought  about  great,  aye, 
astonishing  changes  in  the  production  of  the  necessities  and  comforts  of  life. 
The  work  of  machines  has  to  a  great  extent,  replaced  that  of  men. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  61 

"Machinery  involves  a  great  accumulation  of  power,  and  always  a 
greater  division  of  labor  in  consequence. 

"The  advantages  resulting  from  this  centralization  of  production 
were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  cause  its  still  further  extension,  and  from  this 
concentration  of  the  means  of  labor  and  of  the  operations  of  laborers, 
while  the  old  system  of  distribution  was  (and  is)  retained,  arose  those 
improper  conditions  which  ails  society  to-day. 

"The  means  of  production  thus  came  into  the  hands  of  an  ever  decreas- 
ing number,  while  the  actual  producers,  through  the  introduction  of 
machinery,  deprived  of  the  opportunity  to  toil,  and  being  at  the  same 
time  disinherited  of  the  bounties  of  nature,  were  consigned  to  pauperism, 
vagabondage — the  so-called  crime  and  prostitution— all  these  evils  which 
you  gentlemen  would  like  to  exorcise  with  your  little  prayer-book. 

"The  socialists  award  your  efforts  a  jocular  rather  than  a  serious 
attention — [symptoms  of  uneasiness] — otherwise,  pray  let  us  know  how 
much  you  have  accomplished  so  far  by  your  moral  lecturing  toward 
ameliorating  the  condition  of  those  wretched  beings  who  through  bitter 
want  have  been  driven  to  crime  and  desperation  ?  [Here  several  gentle- 
men sprang  to  their  feet,  exclaiming,  'We  have  done  a  great  deal  in  some 
directions!']  Aye,  in  some  cases  you  have  perhaps  given  a  few  alms;  but 
what  influence  has  this,  if  I  may  ask,  had  upon  societary  conditions,  or 
in  affecting  any  change  in  the  same  ?  Nothing ;  absolutely  nothing. 
You  may  as  well  admit  it,  gentlemen,  for  you  cannot  point  me  out  a  single 
instance. 

"Very  well.  Those  proletarians  doomed  to  misery  and  hunger 
through  the  labor-saving  of  our  centralizd^d  production,  whose  number 
in  this  country  we  estimate  at  about  a  million  and  a  half,  is  it  likely  that 
they  and  the  thousands  who  are  daily  joining  their  ranks,  and  the  mill- 
ions who  are  toiling  for  a  miserable  pittance,  will  suffer  peacefully  and 
with  christian  resignation  their  destruction  at  the  hand  of  their  theivish 
and  murderous,  albeit  very  christian  wage-masters?  They  jvill  defend 
themselves.     It  will  come  to  a  fight. 

"The  necessity  of  common  ownership  in  the  means  of  toil  will  be 
realized,  and  the  era  of  socialism,  of  universal  co-operation  begins.  The 
dispossesssing  of  the  usurping  classes — the  socialization  of  these  posses- 
sions— and  the  universal  co-operation  of  toil,  not  for  speculative  pur- 
poses, but  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  demands  which  we  make  upon  life; 
in  short  co-operati^  labor  for  the  purpose  of  continuing  life  and  of 
enjoying  it — this  in  general  outlines,  is  socialism.  This  is  not,  however, 
as  you  might  suppose,  a  mere  'beautifully  conceived  plan,'  the  realization 
of  which  would  be  well  worth  striving  for  if  it  could  only  be  brought 
about.  No;  this  socialization  of  the  means  of  production,  of  the  machin- 
ery of  commerce,  of  the  land  and  earth,  etc.,  is  not  only  something  desir- 
able, but  has  become  an  imperative  necessity,  and  where  ever  we  find  in 
history  that  something  has  once  become  a  necessity  there  we  always  find 
that  the  next  step  was  the  doing  away  with  that  necessity' by  the  supply- 
ing of  the  logical  want. 

"Our  large  factories  and  mines,  and  the  machinery  of  exchange  and 
transportation,    apart   from  every  other  consideration,  have  become  too 


62  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM. 

vast  for  private  control.     Individuals  can  no  longer  monopolize  them. 

"Everywhere,  wherever  we  cast  our  eyes,  we  find  forced  upon  our 
attention  the  unnatural  and  injurious  effects  of  unregulated  private  pro- 
duction. We  see  how  one  man,  or  a  number  of  men,  have  not  only^ 
brought  into  the  embrace  of  their  private  ownership  a  few  inventions  in 
technical  lines,  but  have  also  confiscated  for  their  exclusive  advantage^ 
all  natural  powers,  such  as  water,  steam,  and  electricity.  Every  fresh, 
invention,  every  discovery  belongs  to  them.  The  world  exists  for  them 
only.  That  they  destroy  their  fellow-beings  right  and  left  they  little 
care.  That,  by  their  machinery,  they  even  work  the  bodies  of  little 
children  into  gold  pieces  they  hold  to  be  an  especially  good  work  and  a 
genuine  christian  act.  They  murder,  as  we  have  said,  little  children 
and  women  by  hard  labor,  while  they  let  strong  men  go  hungry  for  lack 
of  work. 

"People  ask  themselves  how  such  things  are  possible,  and  the  answer 
is  that  the  competitive  system  is  the  cause  of  it.  The  thought  of  a- 
co-operative,  social,  rational,  and  well-regulated  system  of  management 
irresistibly  impresses  the  observer.  The  advantages  of  such  a  system 
are  of  such  a  convincing  kind,  so  patent  to  observation — and  where  could 
there  be  any  other  way  out  of  it  ?  According  to  physical  laws  a  body 
always  moves  itself,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  along  the  line  of  least 
resistance.  So  does  society  as  a  whole.  The  path  to  co-operative  labor 
and  distribution  is  leveled  by  the  concentration  of  the  means  of  labor 
under  the  private  capitalistic  system.  We  are  already  moving  right  in 
that  track.  We  cannot  retre?^  even  if  we  would.  The  force  of  circum- 
stances drives  us  on  to  socialism. 

'"And  now,  Mr.  S.,  won't  you  tell  us  how  you  are  going  to  carry 
out  the  expropriation  of  the  possessing  classes 't '  asked  Rev.  Dr.  Scudder. 

'"The  answer  is  in  the  thing  itself.  The  key  is  furnished  by  the 
storms  raging  through  the  industrial  life  of  the  present.  You  see  how 
penuriously  the  owners  of  the  factories,  of  the  mines,  cling  to  their 
privileges,  and  will  not  yield  the  breadth  of  an  inch.  On  the  other 
hand,  you  see  the  half -starved  proletarians  driven  to  the  verge  of  violence.^ 

"'So  your  remedy  would  be  violence?' 

"'Remedy?  Well,  I  should  like  it  better  if  it  could  be  done  without 
violence,  but  you,  gentlemen,  and  the  class  you  represent,  take  care  that 
it  cannot  be  accomplished  otherwise.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  working- 
men  to-day  go  to  their  employers,  and  say  to  them:  'Listen!  Your 
administration  of  affairs  don't  suit  us  any  more;  it  leads  to  disastrous- 
consequences.  While  one  part  of  us  are  worked  to  death,  the  others  out 
of  employment,  are  starved  to  death;  little  children  are  ground  to  death 
in  the  factories,  while  strong,  vigorous  men  remain  idle;  the  masses  live 
in  misery  while  a  small  class  of  respectables  enjoy  luxury  and  wealth; 
all  this  is  the  result  of  your  maladministration,  which  will  bring  misfor- 
tune even  to  yourselves ;  step  down  and  out  now ;  let  us  have  your  prop- 
erty, jvhich  is  nothing  but  unpaid  labor;  we  shall  take  this  thing  in  our 
hands  now;  we  shall  administrate  matters  satisfactorily,  and  regulate  the 
institutions  of  society;   voluntarily  we  shall  pay  you  a  life-long  pension. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM.  65 

Now,  do  you  think  the  'bosses'  would  accept  this  proposition?  You 
certainly  don't  believe  it.  Therefore  force  will  have  to  decide — or  do  you. 
know  of  any  any  other  way  ? 

"  'So  you  are  organizing  a  revolution  ?' 

"It  was  shortly  before  my  arrest,  and  I  answered:  'Such  things  are^ 
hard  to  organize.  A  revolution  is  a  sudden  up  welling — a  convulsion  of 
the  fevered  masses  of  society. 

"We  are  preparing  society  for  that,  and  insist  upon  it  that  working- 
men  should  arm  themselves  and  keep  ready  for  the  struggle.  The  better 
they  are  armed  the  easier  will  the  battle  be,  and  the  less  the  bloodshed. 

" '  What  would  be  the  order  of  things  in  the  new  society  ?' 

"'I  must  decline  to  answer  this  question,  as  it  is,  till  now,  a  mere^ 
matter  of  speculation.  The  organization  of  labor  on  a  co-operative  basis 
offers  no  difficulties.  The  large  establishments  of  to-day  might  be  used 
as  patterns.  Those  who  will  have  to  solve  these  questions  will  expedi- 
ently do  it,  instead  of  working  according  to  our  prescriptions  (if  we  should 
make  anything  of  the  kind) ;  they  will  be  directed  by  the  circumstances  and 
conditions  of  the  time,  and  these  are  beyond  our  liorizon.  About  this  you. 
needn't  trouble  yourselves.' 

'"But,  friend,  don't  you  think  that  about  a  week  after  the  division, 
the  provident  will  have  all,  while  the  spendthrift  will  have  nothing?' 

"'The  question  is  out  of  order,'  interfered  the  chairman;  'there  was 
not  anything  said  about  division.' 

"Prof.  Wilcox:  'Don't  you  think  the  introduction  of  socialism  will 
destroy  all  inviduality  ?' 

"'How  can  anything  be  destroyed  which  does  not  exist?  In  our 
times  there  is  no  individuality;  that  only  can  be  developed  under  social- 
ism, when  mankind  will  be  independent  economically.  Where  do  you 
meet  to-day  with  real  individuality  ?  Look  at  yourselves,  gentlemen !  You 
don't  dare  to  give  utterance  to  any  subjective  opinion  which  might  not 
suit  the  feeling  of  your  bread-givers  and  customers.  You  are  hypocrites 
[murmurs  of  indignation];  every  business  man  is  a  hypocrite.  Every- 
where is  mockery,  servility,  lies  and  fraud.  And  the  laborers !  There  you 
feign  anxiety  about  their  individuality;  about  the  individuality  of  a  class 
that  has  been  degraded  to  machines — used  each  day  for  ten  or  twelve 
hours  as  appendages  of  the  lifeless  machines!  About  their  individuality 
you  are  anxious!' 

"Does  that  sound  as  though  I  had  at  that  time,  as  has  been  imputed 
to  me,  organized  a  revolution — a  so-called  social  revolution,  which  was  to 
occur  on  or  a})out  the  1  st  of  May  to  establish  anarchy  in  place  of  our  pres- 
ent '  ideal  order  ?'     I  guess  not. 

"So  socialism  does  not  mean  the  destruction  of  society.  Socialism  is- 
a  constructive  and  not  a  destructive  science.  While  capitalism  expropri- 
ates the  masses  for  the  benefit  of  the  privileged  class;  while  capitalism  is 
that  school  of  economics  which  teaches  how  one  can  live  upon  the  labor 
(i.  e.,  property)  of  the  other;  socialism  teaches  how  all  may  possess  prop- 
erty, and  further  teaches  that  every  man  must  work  honestly  for  his  own 
living,  and  not  be  playing  the  'respectable  board  of  trade  man,'  or  any 
other  highly  ( ?)  respectable  business  man  or  banker,  such  as  appeared  here 


64  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHISM. 

as  talesman  in  iilie  jurors'  box,  with  the  fixed  opinion  that  we  ought  to  be 
hanged.  Indeed,  I  believe  they  have  that  opinion!  Socialism,  in  short, 
seeks  to  establish  a  universal  system  of  co-operation,  and  to  render  acces- 
sible to  each  and  every  member  of  the  human  family  the  achievements  and 
benefits  of  civilization,  which,  under  capitalism,  are  being  monopolized  by 
a  privileged  class  and  employed,  not  as  they  should  be,  for  the  common 
good  of  all,  but  for  the  brutish  gratification  of  an  avaricious  class.  Under 
capitalism  the  great  inventions  of  the  past,  far  from  being  a  blessing  for 
mankind,  have  been  turned  into  a  curse!  Under  socialism  the  prophecy 
of  the  Greek  poet,  Antiporas,  would  be  fulfilled,  who,  at  the  invention  of 
the  first  water-mill,  exclaimed:  'This  is  the  emancipator  of  male  and 
female  slaves';  and  likewise  the  prediction  of  Aristotle,  who  said:  'When, 
at  some  future  age,  every  tool,  upon  command  or  by  predestination,  will 
perform  its  work  as  the  art- works  of  Dsedalus  did,  which  moved  by  them- 
selves ;  or  like  the  three  feet  of  Hephaestus,  which  went  to  their  sacred 
work  instinctively,  when  thus  the  weaver  shuttles  will  weave  by  themselves, 
then  we  shall  no  longer  require  masters  and  slaves.'  Socialism  says  this 
time  has  come,  and  can  you  deny  it?  You  say:  'Oh,  these  heathens,  what 
did  they  know ?'  True!  They  knew  nething  of  political  economy;  they 
knew  nothing  of  Christendom.  They  failed  to  conceive  how  nicely  these 
man- emancipating  machines  could  be  employed  to  lengthen  the  hours  of 
toil  and  to  intensify  the  burdens  of  the  slaves.  These  heathens,  yes,  they 
excused  the  slavery  of  one  on  the  ground  that  thereby  another  would  be 
afforded  the  opportunity  of  human  development.  But  to  preach  the 
slavery  of  the  masses  in  order  that  a  few  rude  and  arrogant  parvenues 
might  become  'eminent  manufacturers,'  'extensive  packing-house  owners,' 
or  'influential  shoe-black  dealers,'  to  do  this  they  lacked  that  specific 
Christian  organ. 

"Socialism  teaches  that  the  machines,  the  means  of  transportation  and 
■communipation  are  the  result  of  the  combined  efforts  of  society,  past  and 
present,  and  that  they  are  therefore  rightfully  the  indivisible  property  of 
society,  just  the  same  as  the  soil  and  the  mines  and  all  natural  gifts  should 
be.  This  declaration  implies  that  those  who  have  appropriated  this  wealth 
wrongfully,  though  lawfully,  shall  be  expropriated  by  society.  The  expro- 
priation of  the  masses  by  the  monopolists  has  reached  such  a  degree  that 
the  expropriation  of  the  expropriateurs  has  become  an  imperative  nesessity, 
an  act  of  social  self-preservation.  Society  will  reclaim  its  own,  even 
though  you  erect  a  gibbet  on  every  street  corner.  And  anarchism,  this 
terrible  'ism,'  deduces  that  under  a  co-oj)erative  organization  of  society, 
under  economic  equality  and  individual  independence,  the  'State'- — the 
political  State — will  pass  into  barbaric  antiquity.  And  we  will  be  where 
all  are  free,  where  there  are  no  longer  masters  and  servants,  where  intel- 
lect stands  for  brute  force,  there  will  no  longer  be  any  use  for  the  police- 
men and  militia  to  preserve  the  so-called  'peace  and  order' — the  order 
that  the  Bussian  general  spoke  of  when  he  telegraped  to  the  Czar  after  he 
had  massacred  half  of  Warsaw,   'Peace  reigns  in  Warsaw.' 

"Anarchism  does  not  mean  bloodshed;  does  not  mean  robbery,  arson, 
etc.  These  monstrosities  are,  on  the  contrary,  the  characteristic  features 
of  capitalism.     Anarchism  means  peace  and  tranquility  to  all.     Anarchism, 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 


65 


or  socialism,  means  the  reorganization  of  society  upon  scientific  principles 
and  the  abolition  of  causes  which  produce  vice  and  crime.  Capitalism 
first  produces  these  social  diseases  and  then  seeks  to  cure  them  by  pun- 
ishment. 

"  Your  honor  has  said  this  morning,  '  we  must  learn  their  objects  from 
what  they  have  said  and  written,'  and  in  pursuance  thereof  the  court  has 
read  a  number  of  articles. 

"  Now,  if  I  had  as  much  power  as  the  court,  and  were  a  law-abiding 
citizen,  I  would  certainly  have  the  court  indicted  for  some  remarks  made 
during  this  trial.  I  will  say  that  if  I  had  not  been  an  anarchist  at  the 
beginning  of  this  trial  I  would  be  one  now.  I  quote  the  exact  language 
of  the  court  on  one  occasion.  '  It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  all  laws 
are  foolish  and  bad  because  a  good  many  of  them  are  so.'  That  is  trea- 
son, sir!  if  we  are  to  believe  the  court  and  the  state's  attorney.  But,  aside 
from  that,  I  cannot  see  how  we  shall  distinguish  the  good  from  the  bad 
laws.  Am  I  to  judge  of  that?  No;  I  am  not.  But  if  I  disobey  a  bad 
law,  and  am  brought  before  a  bad  judge,  I  undoubtedly  would  be  convicted. 

"  In  regard  to  a  report  in  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  also  read  this  morn- 
ing, the  report  of  the  Board  of  Trade  demonstration,  I  would  say — and 
this  is  the  only  defense,  the  only  word  I  have  to  say  in  my  own  defense, 
that  I  did  not  know  of  that  article  until  I  saw  it  in  the  paper,  and  the 
man  who  wrote  it,  wrote  it  rather  as  a  reply  to  some  slurs  in  the  morning 
papers.  He  was  discharged.  The  language  used  in  that  article  would 
never  have  been  tolerated  if  I  had  seen  it. 

'*  Now,  if  we  cannot  be  directly  implicated  with  this  affair,  connected 
with  the  throwing  of  the  bomb,  where  is  the  law  that  says,  '  that  these 
men  shall  be  picked  out  to  suffer  ?'  Show  me  that  law  if  you  have  it.  If 
the  position  of  the  court  is  correct,  then  half  of  this  city — half  of  the 
population  of  this  city — ought  to  be  hanged,  because  they  are  responsible 
the  same  as  we  are  for  that  act  on  May  4th.  And  if  not  half  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Chicago  is  hanged,  then  show  me  the  law  that  says,  *  eight  men 
shall  be  picked  out  and  hanged  as  scapegoats!'  You  have  no  such  law. 
Your  decision,  your  verdict,  our  conviction  is  nothing  but  an  arbitrary  will 
of  this  lawless  court.  It  is  true  there  is  no  precedent  in  jurisprudence  in 
this  case.  It  is  true  we  have  called  upon  the  people  to  arm  themselves. 
It  is  true  that  we  have  told  them  time  and  again  that  the  great  day  of 
change  was  coming.  It  was  not  our  desire  to  have  bloodshed.  We  ai'e 
not  beasts.  We  would  not  be  socialists  if  were  beasts.  It  is  because  of 
our  sensitiveness  that  we  have  gone  into  this  movement  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  oppressed  and  suffering.  It  is  true  we  have  called  upon  the 
people  to  arm  and  prepare  for  the  stormy  times  before  us. 

"  This  seems  to  be  the  ground  upon  which  the  verdict  is  to  be  sus- 
tained. 

"  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpations  pursuing  invariably  the 
same  object  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  the  people  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is 
their  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  government  and  provide  new  guards 
for  their  future  safety." 

"  This  is  a  quotation  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Have 
vre  broken  any  laws  by  showing  to  the  people  how  these  abuses,  that  have 


66  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

occurred  for  the  last  twenty  years,  are  invaribly  pursuing  one  object,  viz  : 
to  establish  an  oligarchy  in  this  country  as  strong  and  powerful  and  mon- 
strous as  liever  before  has  existed  in  any  country  ?  I  can  well  understand 
why  that  man  Grinnell  did  not  urge  upon  the  grand  jury  to  charge  us 
with  treason.  I  can  well  understand  it.  You  cannot  try  and  convict  a 
man  for  treason  who  has  upheld  the  constitution  against  those  who  try  to 
trample  it  under  their  feet.  It  would  not  have  been  as  easy  a  job  to  do 
that,  Mr.  Grinnell,  as  to  charge  '  these  men '  with  murder. 

'•  Now,  these  are  my  ideas.  They  constitute  a  part  of  myself.  I  can- 
not divest  myself  of  them,  nor  would  I,  if  I  could.  And  if  you  think  that 
you  can  crush  out  these  ideas  that  are  gaining  ground  more  and  more 
every  day,  if  you  think  you  can  crush  them  out  by  sending  us  to  the  gal- 
lows— if  you  would  once  more  have  people  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  death 
because  they  have  dared  to  tell  the  truth — and  I  defy  you  to  show  us 
where  we  have  told  a  lie — I  say,  if  death  is  the  penalty  for  proclaim- 
ing the  truth,  then  I  will  proudly  and  defiantly  pay  the  costly  price  ! 
Call  your  hangman.  Truth  crucified  in  Socrates,  in  Christ,  in  Giordano 
Bruno,  in  Huss,  Gallileo,  still  lives — they  and  others  whose  number  is 
legion  have  preceded  us  on  this  path.     We  are  ready  to  follow! 


Address  of  Michael  Schwab. 

*  *  *  "To  term  the  proceedings  during  the  trial  justice,  woul(3 
be  a  sneer.  Justice  has  not  been  done,  more  than  this,  could  not  be  done. 
If  one  class  is  arrayed  against  the  other,  it  is  idle  and  hypocritical  to  think 
about  justice.  Anarchy  was  on  trial,  as  the  state's  attorney  put  it  in  his- 
closing  speech.  A  doctrine,  an  opinion  hostile  to  brute  force,  hostile  to 
our  present  murderous  system  of  production  and  distribution.  I  am  con- 
demned*l;o  die  for  wi'iting  newspaper  articles  and  making  speeches.  The 
state's  attorney  knows  as  well  as  I  do  that  that  alleged  conversation 
between  Mr.  Spies  and  myself  never  took  place.  He  knows  a  good  deal  more 
than  that.  He  knows  of  all  the  beautiful  work  of  his  organizer,  Furth- 
man.  When  I  was  before  the  coroner's  jury,  two  or  three  detectives  swore 
very  positively  of  having  seen  me  at  the  haymarket  when  Mr.  Parsons  fin- 
ished his  speech.  I  suppose  they  wanted  at  that  time  to  fix  the  bomb- 
throwing  on  me.  For  the  first  dispatches  to  Europe  said  that  M.  Schwab 
had  thrown  several  bombs  at  the  police.  Later  on  they  sent  detectives  to 
Lake  View,  and  found  that  would  not  do.  And  then  Schnaubelt  was 
the  man. 

"  Anarchy  was  on  trial.  Little  did  it  matter  who  the  persons  were 
to  be  honored  by  the  prosecution.  It  was  the  movement  the  blow  was 
aimed  at :  it  was  directed  against  the  labor  movement ;  against  socialism, 
for  to-day  every  labor  movement  must,  of  necessity,  be  socialistic. 

"  Talk  about  a  gigantic  conspiracy!  A  movement  is  not  a  conspiracy. 
All  we  did  was  done  in  open  daylight. 

"  There  were  no  secrets.  We  prophesied  in  word  and  writing  the 
coming  of  a  great  revolution,  a  change  in  the  system  of  production  in  all 
industrial  countries  of  the  globe.     And  the  change  will  come,  and  must 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  (57 

come.  Is  it  not  absurd,  as  the  state's  attorney  and  his  associates  have 
done,  to  suppose  that  this  social  revolution — a  change  of  such  immense 
proportions — was  to  be  inaugurated  on  or  about  the  first  of  May  in  the 
city  of  Cljicago  by  making  war  on  the  police  ?  The  organizer,  Furthman 
searched  hundreds  of  numbers  of  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  and  the  Alarm, 
and  so  the  prosecution  must  have  known  very  well  what  we  understood 
when  we  talked  about  the  coming  revolution.  But  the  prosecuting  attor- 
ney preferred  to  ignore  these  explanatory  articles. 

"  The  articles  in  evidence  were  carefully  selected  and  paraded  as 
samples  of  violent  language,  but  the  language  used  in  them  was  just  the 
same  as  newspapers  used  in  general  against  us  and  their  enemies.  Even 
against  the  police  and  their  practices  they  used  words  of  the  same  kind 
as  we  did. 

"  The  president  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  Edwin  Lee  Brown,  after 
the  last  election  of  Mayor  Harrison,  made  a  speech  in  north  side  Turner 
Hall  in  wlych  he  called  on  all  good  citizens  to  take  possession  of  the 
court-house  by  force,  even  if  they  had  to  wade*  in  blood.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  most  violent  speakers  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Anarchists. 

"It  is  not  violence  in  word  or  action  the  attorneys  of  the  State  and 
their  urgers-on  are  waging  war  against;  it  is  our  doctrine — anarchy. 

"We  contend  for  communism  and  anarchy — why?  If  we  had  kept 
silent,  stones  would  have  cried  out.  Murder  was  committed  day^  by  day. 
Children  were  slain,  women  worked  to  death,  men  killed  inch  by  inch, 
and  these  crimes  are  never  punished  by  law.  The  great  principle  under- 
lying the  present  system  is  unpaid  labor.  Those  who  amass  fortimes, 
build  palaces,  and  live  in  luxury,  are  doing  that  by  virtue  of  unpaid  labor. 
Being  directly  or  indirectly  the  possessors  of  land  and  machinery,  they 
dictate  their  terms  to  the  workingman.  He  is  compelled  to  sell  his  labor 
cheap,  or  to  starve.  The  price  paid  him  is  always  far  below  the  real 
value.  He  acts  under  compulsion,  and  they  call  it  a  free  contract.  This 
infernal  state  of  affairs  keeps  him  poor  and  ignorant;  an  easy  prey  for 
exploitation. 

"I  know  what  life  has  in  store  for  the  masses.  I  was  one  of  them. 
I  slept  in  their  garrets,  and  lived  in  their  cellars.  I  saw  them  work  and 
die.  I  worked  with  girls  in  the  same  factory — prostitutes  they  were, 
because  they  could  not  earn  enough  wages  for  their  living.  I  saw  females 
sick  from  overwork,  sick  in  body  and  mind  on  account  of  the  lives  they 
were  forced  to  lead.  I  saw  girls  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age  work- 
ing for  a  mere  pittance.*  I  heard  how  their  morals  were  killed  by  the 
foul  and  vile  language  and  the  bad  example  of  their  ignorant  fellow- 
workers,  leading  them  on  to  the  same  road  of  misery,  and  as  an  individual 
I  could  do  nothing.  I  saw  families  starving  and  able-bodied  men  worked 
to  death.  That  was  in  Europe.  When  I  came  to  the  United  States,  I 
found  that  there  were  classes  of  workingmen  who  were  better  paid  than  the 
European  workmen,  but  I  perceiyed  that  the  state  of  things  in  a  great 
number  of  industries  was  even  worse,  and  that  the  so-called  better  paid 
skilled  laborers  were  degrading  rapidly  into  mere  automatic  parts  of 
machinery.     I  found  that  the  proletariat  of  the  great  industrial  cities  was 


68  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

in  a  condition  that  could  not  be  worse.  Thousands  of  laborers  in  the  city 
of  Chicago  live  in  rooms  without  sufficient  protection  from  the  weather, 
without  proper  ventilation,  where  never  a  stream  of  sunlight  flows  in. 
There  are  hovels  where  two,  three  and  four  families  live  in  one  room. 
How  these  conditions  influence  the  health  and  the  morals  of  these  unfor- 
tunate sufferers,  it  is  needless  to  say.  And  how  do  they  live  ?  From  the  ash- 
barrels  they  gather  half-rotten  vegetables,  in  the  butcher  shops  they  buy 
for  some  cents  offal  of  meat,  and  these  precious  morsels  they  carry  home 
to  prepare  from  them  their  meals.  The  delapidated  houses  in  which  this 
class  of  laborers  live  need  repairs  very  badly,  but  the  greedy  landlord 
waits  in  most  cases  till  he  is  compelled  by  the  city  to  have  them  done. 
Is  it  a  wonder  that  diseases  of  all  kinds  kill  men,  women  and  children  in 
such  places  by  wholesale,  especially  children  ?  Is  this  not  horrible  in  a 
so-called  civilized  land  where  there  is  plenty  of  food  and  riches  ?  Some 
years  ago  a  committee  of  the  Citizen's  Association,  or  League,  made  an 
investigation  of  these  matters,  and  I  was  one  of  the  reporters  that  went 
with  them.  What  these  common  laborers  are  to-day,  the  skilled  laborers 
will  be  to-morrow.  Improved  machinery  that  ought  to  be  a  blessing  for 
the  workingman,  under  the  existing  condition  turns  for  him  to  a  curse. 
Machinery  multiplies  the  army  of  unskilled  laborers,  makes  the  laborer 
more  dependent  upon  the  men  who  own  the  land  and  the  machines.  And 
that  is  the  reason  that  socialism  and  communism  got  a  foothold  in  this 
country.  The  outcry  that  socialism,  communism  and  anarchism  are  the 
creed  of  foreigners,  is  a  big  mistake.  There  are  more  socialists  of  Amer- 
ican birth  in  this  country  than  foreigners,  and  that  is  much,  if  we  consider 
that  nearly  half  of  all  industrial  workingmen  are  not  native  Americans. 
There  are  socialistic  papers  in  a  great  many  States  edited  by  Americans 
for  Americans.  The  capitalistic  newspapers  conceal  that  fact  very  care- 
fully.  . 

"  Socialism,  as  we  understand  it,  means  that  land  and  machinery  shall 
be  held  in  common  by  the  people.  The  production  of  goods  shall  be  car- 
ried on  by  producing  groups  which  shall  supply  the  demands  of  the  peo- 
ple. Under  such  a  system  every  human  being  would  have  an  opportunity 
to  do  useful  work,  and  no  doubt  would  work.  Four  hours'  work  every 
day  would  suffice  to  produce  all  that,  according  to  statistics,  is  necessary 
for  a  comfortable  living.  Time  would  be  left  to  cultivate  the  mind,  and 
to  further  science  and  art. 

"  That  is  what  the  socialists  propose.  Some  say  it  is  un-American! 
Well,  then,  is  it  American  to  let  people  starve  and  die  in  ignorance  ?  Is 
exploitation  and  robbery  of  the  poor,  American  ?  What  have  the  great 
political  parties  done  for  the  poor  ?  Promised  much ;  done  nothing,  except 
corrupting  them  by  buying  their  votes  on  election  day.  A  poverty-stricken 
man  has  no  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  community.  It  is  only  natural 
that  in  a  society  where  women  are  driven  to  sell  their  honor,  men  should 
sell  their  votes. 

"But  we  'were  not  only  socialists  and  communists;  we  were  anar- 
chists.' 

"What  is  anarchy? 


THE   PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  ft^ 

"Is  it  not  strange  that  when  anarchy  was  tried  nobody  ever  told 
what  anarchy  was.  Even  when  I  was  on  the  witness  stand,  and  asked 
the  state's  sttorney  for  a  definition  of  anarchy,  he  declined  to  give  it. 
But  in  their  speeches  he  and  his  associates  spoke  very  frequently  about 
anarchy,  and  it  ai)peared  that  they  understood  it  to  be  something  horrible 
— arson,  rapine,  murder.  In  so  speaking,  IVIr.  Grinnell  and  his  associ- 
ates did  not  speak  the  truth.  They  searched  the  Alarm  and  the  Arbeiter- 
Zeitung,  and  hunted  up  articles  written  years  before  the  month  of  May, 
1886.  In  the  columns  of  these  papers  it  is  very  often  stated  what  we,  tho 
'anarchists,'  understood  by  the  term  anarchy.  And  we  are  the  only  com- 
petent judges  in  this  matter.  As  soon  as  the  word  is  applied  to  us  and 
our  doctrine,  it  carriee  with  it  the  meaning  which  we,  the  anarchists,  saw 
fit  to  give  to  it.  *  Anarchy'  is  Greek,  and  means,  verbatim,  without 
rulership ;  not  being  ruled.  According  to  our  vocabulary,  anarchy  is  a 
state  of  society,  in  which  the  only  government  is  reason. 

"  A  state  of  society  in  which  all  human  beings  do  right  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  is  right,  and  hate  wrong  because  it  i^  wrong.  In  such  a 
society,  no  laws,  no  compulsion  will  be  necessary.  The  attorney  of  the 
State  was  wrong  when  he  said:  'Anarchy  is  dead.'  Anarchy,  up  to  the 
present  day,  has  existed  only  as  a  doctrine,  and  Mr.  Grinnell  has  not  the 
power  to  kill  any  doctrine  whatever.  You  many  call  anarchy,  as  defined 
by  us,  an  idle  dream,  but  that  dream  was  dreamed  by  Gotthold  Ephraim 
Lessing,  one  of  the  great  German  poets  and  the  most  celebrated  German 
critic  of  the  last  century.  If  anarchy  were  the  thing  the  state's  attorney 
makes  it  out  to  be,  how  could  it  be  that  such  eminent  scholars  as  Prince 
Kropotkin,  and  the  greatest  living  geographer,  Elisee  Keclus,  were 
avowed  anarchists,  even  editors  of  anarchistic  papers?  Anarchy  is  a 
dream,  but  only  in  the  present.  It  will  be  realized.  Reason  will  grow 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles.  Who  is  the  man  that  has  the  cheek  to  tell  us 
that  human  development  has  already  reached  its  culminating  point? 
I  know  that  our  ideal  will  not  be  accomplished  this  or  next  year,  but  I 
know  that  it  will  be  accomplished  as  near  as  possible,  some  day,  in  the 
future.  It  is  entirely  wrong  to  use  the  word  anarchy  as  synonymous  with 
violence.  Violence  is  one  thing  and  anarchy  is  another.  In  the  present 
state  of  society  violence  is  used  on  all  sides,  and,  therefore,  we  advocated 
the  use  of  violence  against  violence,  but  against  violence  only,  as  a  neces- 
sary means  of  defense. 

***** 

''  If  I  had  never  seen  life  as  it  is,  I  never  would  have  taken  to  foretell- 
ing the  coming  downfall  of  this  murderous  system,  and  might  now  cry 
out  like  the  learned  and  the  ignorant  mobsters :  '  Hang  the  anarchists ! ' 
instead  of  living  in  the  shadow  of  the  gallows.  Seeing  tho  teiTible  abuses 
with  my  own  eyes,  seeing  how  girls  became  prostitutes,  before  they  knew 
it,  observing  the  slaughter  of  the  little  ones,  the  killing  of  workingmen  by 
slow  degrees,  corruption,  misery,  crime,  h}i)Ocrisy,  poverty,  dirt,  ignorance, 
brutality  and  hunger  everywhere,  and  conceiving  that  all  these  things  are 
the  legitimate  children  of  the  capitalistic  system,  which,  by  establi.  h- 
ing  the  right  for  single  persons  to  possess  the  means  of  produc 
tion  and  the  land,  makes  the  mass  of  the  people  wretched,  I  became  a 


70  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHISM. 

*  kicker.'  For  an  Honest  and  honorable  man  only  one  course  was  left,  and 
I  became  an  opponent  to  the  existing  order  of  things,  and  was  soon  called 
an  anarchist.  What  are  my  views?  If  we  socialists,  communists  and 
anarchists  held  the  views  malicious  or  ignorant  hirelings  impute  to  us  in 
their  writings,  we  would  simply  be  madmen  who  should  be  confined  in  an 
insane  asylum  forever.  But  if  it  were  true  that  modern  socialism,  com- 
munism and  anarchism  were  methodical  madness,  how  could  it  be  that 
these  doctrines  spread  all  over  the  world  in  so  short  a  time  ?  No  doc- 
trine whatever  made  so  quick  its  march  around  the  world;  na  doctrine 
ever  gained  so  many  converts  in  so  few  years !  Our  martyrs  alone  count 
hundreds  of  thousands  in  a  score  of  years- — men,  women,  yea  even  chil- 
dren. They  perished  by  bullets,  gallows,  the  sword,  the  guillotine;  they 
perished  in  dungeons,  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  snow,  and  the  mines  of 
Siberia,  under  the  tropical  sun,  they  were  driven  fi'om  town  to  town,  from 
country  to  country,  outcast  by  their  families,  and  some  ended  in  madness 
brought  about  by  persecutions  such  as  only  modern  civilization  could 
invent.  Girls  brought  up  in  palatial  mansions,  with  a  life  of  ease  and  luxury 
before  them;  youths  of  rich  and  aristocratic  parents  worked  as  common  fac- 
tory hands,  leading  a  life  of  misery,  with  no  hope  of  ever  gaining  a  reward, 
often  enough  despised  and  betrayed  even  by  the  class  for  whom  they 
endured  all  this — only  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  saving  of  mankind — 
socialism,  communism,  anarchism.  Of  some  of  these  heroes  not  even  the 
names  are  known.  Even  one  of  your  famous  American  poets — Joaquin 
Miller — could  not  help  to  say,  in  a  poem  written  to  the  praine  of  that 
noble  anarchist  girl,  Sophia  Perovskaya,  who  was  hung,  that  he  would 
rather  die  with  her  on  the  gallows,  than  live  as  the  Russian  Czar.  There 
is  certainly  ti-uth  in  an  idea,  which  has  such  martyrs.  If  our  doctrine  was 
wrong,  our  enemies  would  state  the  facts  and  it  would  then  be  compara- 
tively easy  to  show  the  absurdity  of  the  same.  I  have  been  a  socialist  for 
thirteen  years,  but  never,  never  did  I  see  our  views  correctly  stated  by  a 
capitalistic  newspaper.  They  fabricate  wind  mills,  call  them  socialism, 
communism  and  anarchism  and  begin  fighting  them. 

"  The  modern  communir.t  holds  that  labor  is  the  fountain  of  all  wealth 
and  all  culture  and  that,  because  useful  labor  only  is  possible  by  associa- 
tion of  all  mankind,  the  fruits  of  labor  belong  to  all  mankind.  Even  land 
has  no  value  except  where  it  can  be  put  into  use  by  labor.  No  empty  lot 
in  a  city  would  have  the  least  value,  if  labor  had  not  built  around  it 
houses  and  streets,  if  business  was  not  going  on  near  that  lot.  We  know 
further,  that  labor  is  not  paid  its  full  value;  if  this  were  the  case,  it  would 
be  unprofitable  to  employ  labor  and  would  not  be  done.  Let  one  man 
work  alone  for  himself,  he  never  could  grow  rich,  although  even  in  such 
a  case  his  knowledge  would  be  the  fruit  of  the  work  of  others,  Ihe  labor 
of  generations.  And  because  the  latter  is  the  case,  the  communis  t  wants 
education,  culture  and  knowledge  for  all,  The  land  was  common  property 
thousands  and  thousands  of  years,  and  the  private  property  system  is^ — to 
speak  historically — but  of  yesterday.  And  how  was  it  introduced !  Queen 
Elizabeth,  that  highly  praised  monster  of  murderous  lust  and  brutality, 
for  instance,  had  during  her  reign  two  millions  of  Irishmen  killed  in  the 
usual  way — battles,  gaUows,  etc.,  took  their  land  and  gave  it  to  favorites. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  71 

It  is  not  for  me  now  to  give  a  history  how  the  common  lands  in  England 
were  stolen  and  robbed,  but  it  is  a  historical  fact  that  it  was  acquired  by  the 
forefathers  of  the  present  owners  by  murder,  arson,  theft  and  lesser  crimes. 
Let  the  hired  men  of  the  press  hll  their  columns  with  history  of  the  crimes 
or  land-robbing,  if  they  dare.  The  sentence:  'Property  is  robbery,' is 
literally  true — if  you  call  robbery  what  the  law  calls  so — of  the  property 
of  the  British  landholders.  The  socialists  and  communists  know  further 
that  the  capitalistic  system  requires  always  expansion.  The  so-called  pro- 
fits— that  is,  the  fruit  of  the  labor  withheld  by  the  employer — :are  trans- 
formed into  capital,  to  gain  for  him  new  profits.  New  factories  are  built, 
more  machines  set  to  work,  new  markets  are  sought  for,  if  necessary  by 
war.  More  and  more  nations  are  drawn  into  competition.  It  begins  to 
become  difiicult  to  find  buyers  for  the  goods;  each  nation,  each  corpora- 
tion, each  capitalist  wages  war  against  the  other  for  supremacy.  He  who 
sells  cheapest  holds  the  market.  But  not  only  this  is  required ;  he  who  is 
first  in  the  market,  he  who  can  supply  the  demand  in  any  emergency 
quick  and  cheap,  will  win  the  battle. 

"This  brings  in  speculation.  The  demand  of  the  market  is  but 
limited,  but  the  capitalists  of  all  industrial  countries  are  busy  to  glut  it, 
to  over  flood  it  with  the  products  of  their  factories.  To  come  out  all  right 
from  this  insane  race  for  money,  it  is  necessary  to  supply  cheap  and 
quick,  so  as  to  leave  other  competitors  behind.  The  greater  the  plant, 
the  better  the  machines,  the  cheaper  the  workmen,  the  more  probable  is 
victory.  The  smaller  manufacturer  is  soon  driven  from  the  contest  and 
forced  to. close  his  establishment;  new  inventions  of  labor  saving  mach- 
ines throw  workmen  out  of  employment  and  compel  these  forces  to  look 
out  for  new  work,  as  machines  tend  to  transform  skilled  labor  into  com- 
mon labor.  The  com|)etition  for  work  among  workingmen  grows  to  fear- 
ful dimensions  and  brings  wages  down  to  a  minimum.  But  this  in  turn 
has  its  effect  on  production,  and  the  battle  wages  more  fearful  than  ever. 
But  now  reaction  sets  in.  Millions  of  workmen  are  starving  and  leading 
the  lives  of  vagabonds.  Even  the  most  ignorant  wage-slave  commences 
to  think.  The  common  misery  makes  it  clear  to  them  that  they  must 
combine,  and  they  do  it.  The  great  levellers,  the  machines,  destroyed  the 
guild-pride  of  olden  times.  The  carpenter  feels  that  he  has  a  common 
interest  with  the  farm  hand,  and  the  printer  with  the  hod-carrier,  the 
German  learns  that  his  interest  is  that  of  Negro,  of  the  Frenchman,  of  the 
American,  and  passing  I  would  like  to  state,  that  in  my  opinion  it  is  the 
greatest  merit  of  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  to  have  carried  out 
that  principle  in  America  in  such  an  immense  way.  The  workingmen 
learn  that  the  capitalistic  system,  although  necessary  for  some  time,  must 
make  room  for  universal  co-operation;  that  the  land  and  means  of  pro- 
duction must  pass  from  the  hands  of  speculators,  private  individuals  into 
the  hands  of  the  producing  masses ;  this  is  communism. 

"Any  thinking  man  must  concede  that  strikes,  boycotts,  co-operation 
on  a  sn\all  scale  and  other  means  will  not  and  cannot  better  the  condition 
of  the  working-classes,  even  not  so-called  factory  laws  can  bring  the 
sought  for  result  about.  It  is  true  the  workingmen  cannot  help  to  use 
these  insufficient  means,  often  enough  they  are  forced  upon  him.     They 


72  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANAECHISM. 

must  be  looked  on  as  means  of  education.  Man  learns  by  failures.  A 
little  baby  who  commences  to  stand  on  his  feet,  tumbles  down  many  and 
many  a  time,  before  his  limbs  gain  sufficient  strength  to  walk.  Many  and 
many  a  time  it  tries  to  raise  itself,  till  at  last  the  great  feat  is  accomplished. 
In  all  these  fights,  in  striking,  boycotting,  going  into  politics,  yes,  even  in. 
street  riots  the  young  Hercules  collects  strength  to  throttle  the  serpent — 
the  capitalistic  system.  The  workingmen  may  be  sometimes  wrong,  why 
not,  the  baby  sometimes  tries  to  raise  itself  by  means  of  the  table-cloth, 
thus  bringing  down  the  dishes,  but  his  impulse  to  raise  is  all  right,  and 
therefore  the  workingman  should  continue  to  try  raising  his  condition, 
even  if  he  sometimes  brings  down  the  dishes. 

"Now  as  to  anarchism.  Anarchism  is  order  without  government.  We 
anarchists  say  that  anarchism  will  be  the  natural  outgrowth  of  universal 
co-operation  (communism).  We  say  that,  when  poverty  has  vanished  and 
education  is  common  property  of  the  people,  that  then  reason  will  reign 
supreme.  We  say  that  crime  will  belong  to  the  past  and  that  the 
misdeeds  of  erring  brethren  can  be  righted  by  other  means  than  those  of 
to-day.  Most  of  the  crimes  of  our  days  are  engendered  directly  by  the^ 
system  of  to-day,  the  system  which  creates  ignorance  and  misery. 

"We  anarchists  do  believe  that  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  the 
working  people  will  demand  their  rights  of  their  exploiters,  and  we  fur- 
ther believe,  that  the  slave-holders  of  to-day  will  rebel  against  the  majority 
of  the  people,  aided  by  the  slums  of  the  cities  and  duped  people  of  the 
country.     This  struggle,  in  our  opinion,  is  inevitable. 


OscAK  Neebe's  Remarks. 

*  *  *  "I  saved  for  the  men  from  four  to  five  hours  a  day  less  work, 
I  have  saved  the  bakers  from  six  to  eight  hours  work  a  day,  and  that  gives- 
them  time  for  education.  We  socialists  are  great  believers  that  the  laboring 
men  should  educate  themselves;  not  to  be  ignoramuses,  as  some  people 
express  themselves,  'as  the  ignorant  anarchists  are,'  We  are  great  friends 
of  education  and  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  was  my  principal  aim, 
and  I  have  done  some  good  work  to  bring  it  about,  I  have  been  in  the 
labor  movement  since  1875.  I  have  seen  how  the  police  have  trodden  on 
the  constitution  of  this  country,  and  crushed  the  labor  organizations.  I 
have  seen  from  year  to  year  how  they  were  trodden  down,  where  they 
were  shot  down,  where  they  were  'driven  into  their  holes  like  rats,'  as 
Mr.  Grinnell  said  to  the  jury.  But  they  will  come  out!  Remember  that 
within  three  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution,  when 
laws  had  been  stretched  like  rubber,  that  the  rubber  stretched  too  long, 
and  broke — a  result  which  cost  a  good  many  state's  attorneys  at  that 
time  their  necks,  and  a  good  many  honorable  men  their  necks. 

"We  socialists  hope  such  times  may  never  come  again;  we  do  every- 
thing in  our  power  to  prevent  it  by  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  and  increas- 
ing wages.  But  you  capitalists  won't  allow  this  to  be  done.  You  use 
your  power  to  perpetuate  a  system  by  which  you  may  make  your  money 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  73 

for  yourselves  and  keep  the  wage-workers  poor.  You  make  them  ignorant 
and  miserable,  and  you  are  responsible  for  it.  You  won't  let  the  toilers 
live  a  decent  life. 

"'  We  want  to  educate  the  masses  and  keej)  them  back  from  destroying 
life  and  })roperty,  but  we  are  not  able  to  hold  the  masses  when  starvation 
brings  them  out  of  their  holes  like  rats.  I  have  walked  along  the  streets 
of  this  city  and  I  have  seen  the  rats  come  from  their  holes  by  the  hundreds 
in  the  basements,  where  they  pay  five  and  ten  cents  for  lodgings.  I  have 
seen  the  miserable  wretches  lying  there  in  the  day  begging  for  a  piece  of 
bread,  and  in  the  night  they  lie  there  in  an  air  that  nobody  hardly  could 
live  in.  I  have  been  in  there  at  ten,  twelve,  and  two  o'clock  at  night,  and 
when  those  rats  are  let  out  of  their  holes  once  and  get  desperate  I  would 
not  like  to  be  near  them.  The  time  will  come  that  you  will  see  them. 
You  rich  men  don't  want  the  workingmen  educated.  You  don't  want 
anybody  to  be  educated.  You  want  to  keep  them  down  in  the  mud  so 
you  can  squeeze  the  last  drop  of  blood  out  of  theip  bones.  We  asked  the 
capitalists  once  at  one  meeting  to  discuss  the  question  of  labor,  and  Mr. 
Gary  was  invited  and  each  one  of  them  was  invited,  and  nobody  appeared. 
They  didn't  want  to  discuss  the  question;  they  didn't  care  for  it.  W^hafc 
is  the  next  question  ?  No  discussion,  more  Gatling  guns,  more  militia, 
and  three  hundred  more  police.  For  what  ?  To  catch  the  thieves  ?  I 
read  the  daily  papers  and  see  burglaries  all  over  the  city,  but  I  don't  see 
that  they  catch  any.  There  are  some  1.200  and  odd  policemen  in  the  city 
of  Chicago,  and  every  day  so  many  burglaries.  May  be  they  need  them 
to  make  a  case  sometimes,  and  they  don't  arrest  them;  but  when  it  comes 
to  arresting  a  poor  workingman  they  are  all  there.  On  May  9,  when.  I 
came  home,  my  wife,  who  is  delicate,  told  me  that  the  patrol  wagon,  with 
twenty -five  police  came  to  search  my  house.  I  must  be  a  very  dangerous 
man  to  take  so  many  police.  They  searched  the  whole  house  and  found 
a  revolver.  That  is  a  deadly  weapon  and  a  dangerous  weapon.  I  don't 
think  anybody  else  has  revolvers  but  anarchists  and  socialists  and  labor 
agitators. 

''They  found  a  red  flag,  too^a  flag  of  that  size  (about  a  foot  square) 
that  my  little  boy  played  with,  and  my  wife  used  at  a  masquerade  ball. 
My  wife  told  me  that  the  police — these  honorable  men  to  protect  law  and 
order — when  they  got  on  that  wagon  they  waved  that  flag  and  hollered 
and  hurrahed  just  like  a  lot  of  wild  Indians— and  they  were  wild  Indians 
in  those  days.  They  searched  hundreds  of  houses,  and  money  was  stolen 
by  searching  houses,  and  watches  were  stolen,  and  nobody  knew  whether 
they  were  stolen  by  the  police  or  not.  Captain  Schaack  knows  it.  His 
gang  was  one  of  the  worst  in  this  city.  You  need  not  laugh  about  it, 
Captain  Schaack.  You  are  one  of  them.  You  are  an  anarchist,  as  you  under- 
stand it.  You  are  all  anarchists,  in  this  sense  of  the  word,  I  must  say. 
Well,  these  are  all  the  crimes  I  have  committed.  They  found  a  revolver 
in  my  house,  and  a  red  flag  there.  I  organized  trades  unions.  I  was  for 
reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  and  the  education  of  laboring  men,  and 
the  re- establishment  of  the  Arbeiter-Zcitung — the  workingmen's  newspa- 
per. There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  I  was  connected  with  the  bomb- 
throwing,  or  that  I  was  near  it,  or  anything  of  that  kind.     So  I  am  only 


74  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANAKCHISM. 

sorry,  your  honor — ^that  is,  if  you  can  stop  it  or  help  it — I  will  ask  you  to 
do  it— that  is,  to  hang  me,  too;  for  I  think  it  is  more  honorable  to  die 
suddenly  than  to  be  killed  by  inches.  I  have  a  family  and  children;  and 
if  they  know  their  father  is  dead,  they  will  bury  him.  They  can  go  to 
the  grave,  and  kneel  down  by  the  side  of  it;  but  they  can't  go  to  the  peni- 
tentiary and  see  their  father,  who  was  convicted  for  a  crime  that  he  hasn't 
had  anything  to  do  with.  That  is  all  I  have  got  to  say.  Your  honor,  I 
am  sorry  I  am  not  to  be  hung  with  the  rest  of  the  men. 


Adolph   Fischer. 

"Being  familiar  with  the  doctrines  of  socialism  from  my  earliest  youth 
I  have  held  it  my  duty  to  spread  these  principles  so  dear  to  me  whenever 
and  wherever  I  could.  What  induced  me  to  become  a  socialist,  you  may 
ask  ?     This  I  will  relate  in  a  few  words : 

"It  happened  during  the  last  year  of  my  school  days  that  our  tutor 
of  historical  science  one  day  chanced  to  refer  to  socialism,  which  movement 
was  at  that  time  beginning  to  flourish  in  Germany,  and  which  he  told  us 
meant  'division  of  property.'  I  am  inclined  to  believe  now  that  it  was  a 
general  instruction  given  by  the  government  to  the  patriotic  pedagogues 
to  periodically  describe  to  their  elder  pupils  socialism  as  a  most  horrible 
thing.  It  is,  as  is  well  known,  a  customary  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
respective  monarchial  governments  of  the  old  world  to  prejudice  the  unde- 
Teloped  minds  of  the  youth  against  everything  which  is  disagreeable  to  the 
despots  through  the  medium  of  the  school  teachers.  For  instance,  I 
remember  quite  distinctly  that  before  the  outbreak  and  dui'ing  the  Franco- 
Oerman  war  we  were  made  to  believe  by  our  teachers  that  every  French- 
man was  at  least  a  scoundrel,  if  not  a  criminal.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
kings  were  praised  as  the  representatives  of  God,  and  obedience  and  loy- 
alty to  them  was  described  as  the  highest  virtues.  Thus  the  minds  of  the 
children  are  systematically  poisoned,  and  the  fruits  of  this  practice  are 
made  use  of  when  the  little  ones  become  men  and  women.  [Enough  at 
the  mentioned  occasion  our  teachers  told  us  that  the  socialists  were  a  lot 
of  dnmkards,  swindlers  and  idlers,  who  were  opposed  to  work.]  'The 
time  draws  nigh,'  that  worthy  said,  placing  his  forefinger  significantly 
alongside  of  his  roman  nose,  'when  you  young  men  will  have  to  earn  your 
daily  bread  in  the  sweat  of  your  brow.  Some  of  you  may  acquire  wealth, 
while  others  will  be  less  fortunate.  Now,  these  socialists — mark  you,  who 
^e  a  lazy  set  of  people — intend  to  forcibly  make  you  divide  with  them 
everything  you  possess  at  the  termination  of  every  year.  For  instance,  if 
you  should  call  two  pairs  of  boots  your  own,  one  of  these  socialistic  scoun- 
drels will  kindly  relieve  you  of  one  pair.  How  would  you  like  this  ?' 
Oertainly,  we  thought  we  did  not  like  this  at  all.  Neither  would  I  con- 
sent to  anything  of  that  sort  to-day.  Most  decidedly  not.  Such  an 
arrangement,  I  fancied,  would  be  absurd.  Now  I  knew  it  to  be  a  fact 
that  my  father  took  part  in  socialistic  meetings  very  fi-equently,  and  I 
wondered  that  day  why  he — ^whom  I  thought  to  be  so  good — should  have 


THE    PmLOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  75 

iatercourse  with  such  a  bad  class  of  men,  whose  object  it  was  to  lead  a  lazy- 
life  and  to  make  the  sober,  industrious  working  people,  at  the  termination 
of  oach  year,  divide  their  earnings  with  them.  When  I  reached  home 
that  day  I  intimated  to  my  father  what  (according  to  what  the  teacher  had 
told  us)  bad  people  the  socialists  must  be.  Much  to  my  surprise  my  dear 
father  laughed  aloud  and  embraced  me  very  affectionately.  *Dear 
Adolph,'  he  said,  *if  socialism  is  what  your  teacher  explained  it  to  be,  why 
then  the  very  same  institutions  which  prevail  now,  would  be  socialistic' 
And  my  father  went  on  to  show  me  how,  in  fact,  there  were  so  many  idlers 
and  indolent  people  under  the  now  existing  form  of  society,  who  were  residing 
in  palatial  houses  and  living  luxuriously  at  the  expense  of  the  sober  and 
industrious  working  people,  and  that  socialism  had  the  mission  to  abolish 
such  unjust  division.  After  this  day  I  accompanied  my  father  to  socialistic 
gatherings,  and  soon  became  convinced  of  the  tiTith  of  what  he  had  said. 
"  I  began  to  study.  Wandering  about  the  streets  I  often  saw  groups 
of  hard-fisted  men  who  were  working  in  quarries  and  other  places  of  toil, 
and  handling  heavy  picks  and  clumsy  shovels  from  early  morning  until 
late  at  night.  Standing  a  little  aside  I  would  notice  an  elegantly  dressed 
individual,  smoking  a  Havana,  and  seemingly  interested  in  the  work  of 
the  toilers.  The  hands  of  the  idler  were  covered  with  kid  gloves,  in  the 
bosom  of  his  snow-white  shirt  glittered  a  diamond  pin,  and  from  his  vest 
^dangled  a  valuable  ^old  watch  and  chain.  You  can  guess,  dear  reader, 
who  this  gentleman  was- — the  'employer.'  The  busy  toilers,  nothwith- 
standing  the  many  hours  of  strained  work,  could  scarcely  earn  enough  to 
keep  themselves  and  families  from  want.  I  saw  they  inhabited  miserable 
hovels,  and  the  pleasures  and  comforts  of  life  were  unkown  to  them. 
Their  children  were  hollow-eyed  and  resembled  fence  posts  covered  with 
human  skin  more  than  human  beings.  Following,  on  one  occasion,  tne 
fine  gentleman  whom  I  had  seen  standing  idly  by,  and  who  had  commanded 
the  workingmen,  I  saw  him  enter  a  wonderfully  beautiful  house — a 
palace.  Costly  pictures  decorated  the  massive  walls  of  its  parlors,  pre- 
cious carpets  covered  the  floors  and  golden  chandeliers  were  suspended 
from  the  ceilings.  The  safes  and  pantries  were  bursting  with  its  tempt- 
ing contents,  and  the  tables  covered  with  choice  wines  and  delicacies.  In 
short,  everything  good  and  agreeable  could  be  enjoyed  here  in  abundance. 
This  contrast  between  the  busy  toiler  and  the  idle  bystander  did  not  fail 
to  impress  itself  upon  my  mind,  especially  as  I  observed  that  these  con- 
ditions existed  everywhere  and  in  all  branches  of  industiy.  I  perceived 
that  the  diligent,  never  resting  human  working  bees,  who  create  all  wealth 
and  fill  the  magazines  with  provisions,  fuel  and  clothing,  enjoy  only  a 
minor  part  of  their  produots  and  lead  a  comparatively  miserable  life, 
whilst  the  drones,  the  idlers,  keep  the  ware-houses  locked  up  and  revel  in 
luxury  and  voluptuousness.  Was  I  wrong,  or  was  the  world  wrong  ?  I 
saw  men  who  manufactured  shoes  and  boots  and  had  helped  fill  the  store- 
house with  these  products  ever  since  their  boyhood,  and  yet  they  lingered 
io  leave  their  shanties  after  rainy  weather  for  fear  of  getting  wet  feet, 
and  in  many  cases  the  toes  of  their  children's  feet  peeped  speakingly  out 
of  the  top  of  the  shabby  shoes.  Bricklayers  were  busy  building  houses 
irom  sunrise  until  sunset  for  several  decades,  yet  as  I  looked  about  me.  I 


76  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM. 

discovered  but  very  few  who  called  a  house  their  own;  they  were  bound 
to  pay  rent  for  the  very  same  houses  which  they  had  built.  The  clothing 
stores  I  knew  to  be  crammed  with  goods,  but  it  was  not  a  rare  spectacle  in 
my  native  city  to  see  tailors  walk  about  in  the  streets  with  pants  patched 
to  such  an  extent,  that  they  resembled  chess  boards.  Whilst  the  journey- 
men bakers  were  half -roasting  in  the  hot  bake-house,  sixteen  out  of  twenty- 
four  hours  a  day,  their  wives  in  many  instances  did  not  know  where  to- 
get  a  loaf  of  bread.  My  father's  neighbor  worked  in  a  butcher  shop,  but 
his  wages  were  so  low  that  his  family  could  afford  the  luxury  of  one 
pound  of  meat  only  once  a  week — on  Sunday.  All  these  circumstances- 
convinced  me  that  'there  must  be  something  rotten  in  the  state  of  Den- 
mark,' and  it  did  not  even  require  a  prof  ound  thinker  or  a  sorcerer  to  dis- 
cover that  the  prevailing  social  institutions  were  based  upon  the  extortion 
of  one  class  by  another. 

"The  capitalistic  papers  of  this  country  sneered  at  a  certain  Indian 
chief;  I  think  Red  Cloud,  who,  they  reported  had  said:  *  What  we  (tho 
Indians)  want  is  white  men  to  plant  our  corn,  hoe  it,  harvest  it,  and  put 
it  into  barns  which  they  will  build  for  us.'  Now,  I  cannot  comprehend 
why  the  capitalistic  press  considers  this  utteranee  of  Red  Cloud  as  a. 
peculiar  one.  Have  not  the  capitalists  put  this  very  same  idea  into  prac- 
tice? Let  us  investigate.  Instead  of  the  words  'white  men,'  use  the 
expression  '  workingmen,'  and  it  will  read  thus:  '  What  we  (the  capital- 
ists, the  privileged  class)  want  is  workingmen  to  plant  our  corn,  hoe  it, 
harvest  it,  and  put  it  into  barns  which  they  will  build  for  us.'  Well, 
nevertheless,  these  conditions  exist  to-day.  The  wage-slaves  really  pro- 
duce everything,  and  store  their  products  away  into  warehouses  which 
they  build  for  their  masters ;  and  besides  they  build  for  them  also  palaces 
such  as  Red  Cloud  never  had  on  his  programme.  Yes ;  and  the  toilers  do- 
more  than  that;  they  decorate  their  masters  with  diamonds,  and  over-bur- 
den them  with  luxuries  and  riches  of  which  Red  Cloud  never  dreamed. 
Who  can  deny  this  fact? 

"  In  order  to  illustrate  the  existing  social  'order,'  I  will  draw  the  fol- 
lowing parable: 

"  A  long  time  ago  the  forests  of  a  tropical  land  were  populated  by  a. 
happy  lot  of  monkeys.  They  lived  together  like  a  large  family  and  quar- 
relling and  discontentedness  were  qualities  totally  unknown  to  them.  For 
a  livelihood  they  searched  the  surroundings  for  food  for  themselves  and 
their  young  ones  in  a  harmonious  way  and  without  grudge.  They  were 
happy,  indeed.  One  day  some  cunning  monkeys  were  overcome  by  a  very 
smart  idea.  They  erected  fences  around  the  best  paxts  of  the  forests  and 
forbade  their  fellow-monkeys  to  hunt  for  food  inside  of  the  hedged  regions. 
They  namea  these  pieces  of  land  '  property.'  Xow,  the  propertyless  mon- 
keys were  in  utter  despair,  for  they  did  not  know  where  to  get  food  for 
themselves  and  families.  They  called  upon  the  property-owners  and  com- 
plained of  their  impossibility  of  making  a  livelihood.  The  propertied 
monkeys  said  unto  them:  '  We  may  allow  you  to  seek  food  on  our  pro- 
perty under  the  condition  that  you  will  give  us  half  of  the  result  of  your 
labor.'  This  offer  the  poor  propertyless  monkeys  were  compelled  to 
accept,  as  there  was  no  other  way  of  making  a  living.     No  other  choice 


THE    PHILOSQPHY    Or   ANABCHISM.  77 

was  left  open  to  them  as  either  to  accept  or  starve.  The  propertyless 
monkeys  had  to  build  large  ware-houses  for  their  '  employers,'  into  which 
to  store  away  their  products.  As  a  compensation  they  received  so  much 
for  their  services  as  was  sufficient  to  keep  themselves  and  families  alive. 
This  was  called  'means.'  The  property-owning  monkeys  became  very 
wealthy,  and  were  living  in  luxury  and  idleness.  And  why  should  they 
not  ?  Did  not  the  poor  monkeys  work  for  them,  and  thus  enable  them  to 
be  idle  and  yet  debauch  in  abundance  ? 

"  For  a  long  time  the  working  monkeys  did  not  grumble,  but  were 
very  obedient.  Generations  thus  passed,  and  the  monkeys  thought  that 
the  *  social  institutions '  could  not  be  otherwise  and  that  there  had  to  be 
rich  and  poor  monkeys,  because  these  were  the  conditions  which  existed 
already  when  they  were  bom.  But  the  employers  grew  continually  richer 
whilst  the  portion  of  the  products  of  the  workers,  which  they  received  as  a 
compensation,  were  reduced  to  the  lowest  standard.  Consequently  the 
poor  working  monkeys  were  living  in  destitution  and  misery,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  the  warehouses  were  filled  with  food.  Discontentedness 
among  the  workers  was  the  natural  result  of  the  growing  wealth  on  one 
side  and  increasing  poverty  on  the  other.  In  order  to  keep  the  grumb- 
ling monkeys  in  subjection  and  maintain  the  respect  for  the  existing  insti- 
tutions (which  were  called  'law  and  order ')  the  propertied  classes  hired 
numbers  of  able-bodied  monkeys  from  the  ranks  of  the  propertyless  classes. 
Those  men  were  called  police,  sheriffs,  malitia,  a.  s.  f. 

"  Now,  the  dissatisfied  monkeys  assembled  frequently  for  the  purpose 
of  seeking  remedy  for  the  existing  evils.  As  the  opinions  as  to  ways  and 
means  to  secure  better  conditions  were  very  different  they  formed 
various  organizations.  Some  of  the  workers  aimed  at  '  higher  wages ' 
and  others  wanted  to  work  less  time.  Still  another  class  of  workers 
held  that  the  '  wage-system '  should  be  abolished  entirely.  They  said 
that  the  propertied  monkeys  had  accumulated  their  riohes  by  robbing  the 
workers  out  of  the  major  part  of  the  results  of  their  labor.  Furthermore, 
they  claimed  that  the  wealthy  classes  had  no  right  to  monopolize  the 
natural  resources  of  existence  and  thereby  force  their  fellow- monkeys  into 
their  services,  but  that  the  mother- earth  and  her  products  belonged  to  the 
monkey  race  in  common.  The  monkeys  who  confessed  the  latter  ideas 
were  considered  very  dangerous  by  the  privileged  class.  '  Law  and  order  is 
endangered,'  the  wealthy  cried.  *  Those  anarchists  want  to  overthrow  our 
glorious  institutions  and  turn  everything  topsy-turvy.  We  must  do  away 
with  those  bloodthirsty  rascals,  who  want  to  take  our  property  and  who 
are  undermining  our  free  and  glorious  institutions.'  The  propertied 
monkeys  were  also  opposed  to  that  part  of  the  working  monkeys  who  only 
demanded  a  larger  compensation  for  their  work;  but  their  hate  against 
those  who  wanted  to  abolish  their  privileges  altogether  was  immeasurable. 

"  The  capitalistic  press,  and  even  numerous  labor  journals,  define 
anarchism  as  murder,  plunder,  arson  and  outrage  upon  society  in  general. 
These  *  learned '  journalists,  or  at  least  a  majority  of  them  thus  defining 
anarchism,  misrepresent  the  object  and  aims  of  this  teaching  maliciously. 
Anarchism  does  not  mean  plunder  and  outrage  upon  society ;  contrarily, 
its  mission  is  to  outroot  the  systematical  plunder  of  a  vast  majority  of  the 


78 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANAKCHISM. 


people  by  a  comparatively  few — the  working  classes  by  the  capitalists. 
It  aims  at  the  extermination  of  the  outrages  committed  by  the  reigning 
classes  upon  the  wage-slaves,  under  the  name  of  '  law  and  order.'  Murder, 
plunder,  robbery,  outrages.  '  Is  an  anarchist  really  the  impersonation  of 
all  crimes,  of  everything  dastardly  and  damnable  ?'  The  '  International 
Working  Peoples'  Association,'  the  organization  of  the  anarchists,  has 
the  following  platform,  which  was  agreed  upon  at  the  congress  at  Pitts- 
burg in  October,  1883.  Let  this  platform  be  the  answer  to  the  question  I 
have  raised  before: 

"  1.  Destruction  of  the  existing  class  rule,  by  all  means,  i.  e.,  by 
energetic,  relentless,  revolutionary  and  international  action. 

"  2.  Establishment  of  a  free  society  based  upon  co-operative  organi- 
tion  of  production. 

"  3.  Free  exchange  of  equivalent  products  by  and  between  the  pro- 
ductive organizations  without  commerce  and  profit-mongery. 

"  4.  Organization  of  education  on  a  secular,  scientific  and  equal  basis 
for  both  sexes. 

"  5.     Equal  rights  for  all  without  distinction  to  sex  or  race. 

"  6.  Regulation  of  all  public  afPairs  by  free  contracts  between  the 
autonomous  (independent)  communes  and  associations,  resting  on  a  feder- 
alistic  basis. 

"  Does  this  sound  like  outrages  and  crime  ? 

"  In  the  course  of  my  observations  I  will  dwell  more  thoroughly  on 
the  aims  and  objects  of  anarchy. 

"  Many  people  undoubtedly  long  to  know  what  the  relationship 
between  anarchism  and  socialism  is,  and  whether  these  two  doctrines 
have  anything  in  common  with  each  other.  A  number  of  persons  claim, 
that  an  anarchist  cannot  be  a  socialist,  and  a  socialist  not  an  anarchist. 
This  is  wrong.  The  philosophy  of  socialism  is  a  general  one,  and  covers 
several  subordinate  teachings.  To  illustrate,  I  will  cite  the  word  '  Christ- 
ianity.' There  are  Catholics,  Lutherans,  Methodists,  Baptists,  Congrega- 
tionalists,  and  various  other  religious  sects,  all  of  whom  call  themselves 
Christians.  Although  every  Catholic  is  a  Christian,  it  would  not  be  cor- 
rect to  say  that  every  Christian  believes  in  Catholicism.  Webster  defined 
socialism  thus:  'A  more  orderly,  equitable  and  harmonious  arrangement 
of  social  affairs  than  has  hitherto  prevailed.'  Anarchism  is  aiming  at  this; 
anarchism  is  seeking  a  more  just  form  of  society.  Therefore  every  anar- 
chist is  a  socialist  but  every  socialist  is  not  necessarily  an  anarchist.  The 
anarchists  again  are  divided  into  two  factions ;  the  communistic  anarchists 
andtheProudhon  or  middle -class  anarchists.  The  'International  Working 
Peoples'  Association '  is  the  representative  organization  of  the  communistic 
anarchists.  Politically  we  are  anarchists,  and  economically,  communists  or 
socialists.  With  regard  to  political  organization  tJie  communistic  anarchists 
demand  the  abolition  of  political  authority,  the  state ;  we  deny  the  right  of  a 
single  class  or  single  individual  to  govern  or  rule  another  class  or  individual. 
We  hold  that,  as  long  as  one  man  is  under  the  dictation  of  another,  as 
long  as  one  man  can  in  any  form  subjugate  his  fellow  man,  and  as  long  as 
the  means  of  existence  can  be  monopolized  by  a  certain  class  or  certain  indi- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM.  79 

viduals,  there  can  be  no  liberty.    Concerning  the  economical  form  of  society, 
we  advocate  the  commimistic  or  co-operative  method  of  production. 

"As  to  the  distribution  of  products,  a  free  exchange  between  the 
organizations  of  productions  without  profit-mongery  would  take  place. 
Machinery  and  the  means  of  production  in  general  would  be  the  com- 
mon servant,  and  the  products  certainly  the  common  property  of  the 
whole  of  the  people.  In  what  respect  do  the  social-democrats  differ 
from  the  anarchists  ?  The  state- socialists  do  not  seek  the  abolition  of  the 
state,  but  they  advocate  the  centralization  of  the  means  of  production  in 
the  hands  of  the  government;  in  other  words,  they  want  the  government 
to  be  the  controller  of  industry.  Now,  a  socialist  who  is  not  a  state-social- 
ist must  necessarily  be  an  anarchist.  It  is  utterly  ridiculous  for  men  like 
Dr.  Aveling  to  state  that  they  are  neither  state-socialists  nor  anarchists. 
Dr.  Aveling  has  to  be  either  one  or  the  other. 

"  The  term  '  anarchism'  is  of  Greek  origin  and  means  *  without  gov- 
ernment,' or,  in  other  words,  *  without  oppression.'  I  only  wish  that  every, 
workingman  would  understand  the  proper  meaning  of  this  word.  It  is  anj 
absurd  falsehood  if  the  capitalists  and  their  hired  editors  say  that  anarch- 
ism is  identical  with  disorder  and  crime.  On  the  contrary,  anarchism 
wants  to  do  away  with  the  now  existing  social  disorder;  it  aims  at  the 
establishment  of  the  real — the  natural — order.  I  think  every  sensible  man 
ought  to  conceive,  that  where  ruling  is  existing  on  one  hand,  there  must 
be  submission  on  the  other.  He  who  rules  is  a  tyrant,  and  he  who  sub- 
mits is  a  slave.  Logically  there  can  be  no  other  outlet,  because  submis- 
sion is  the  antithesis  of  rule.  Anarchists  hold  that  it  is  the  natural  right 
of  every  member  of  the  human  family  to  control  themselves.  If  a  central- 
ized power — government — is  ruling  the  mass  of  people  (no  matter  whether 
this  government  'represents  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people'  or  not) 
it  is  enslaving  them,  and  a  direct  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature.  When 
laws  are  made  there  must  be  certain  interests  which  cause  their  issue. 
Now  every  statute  law,  and  consequently  every  violation  thereof — crime — 
can  be  traced  back  to  the  institution  of  private  property.  The  state  pro- 
tects the  interests  of  the  owners  of  private  property  (wealthy  class),  and 
therefore  does  not  and  cannot  possibly  protect  the  interests  of  the  non- 
possessing  people  (the  wage-workers),  because  the  interests  of  both  are  of 
an  opposite  nature.  The  capitalists  who  have  taken  possession  of  the 
means  of  production^factories,  machinery,  land;  etc.,  are  the  masters, 
and  the  workingmen  who  have  to  apply  to  the  capitalists  for  the  use  of 
the  means  of  production  (for  which  they  receive  a  small  compensation  in 
order  to  live),  are  the  slaves.  The  interests  of  the  capitalistic  class  are 
backed  by  the  state  (militia,  sheriffs,  and  police)  while  the  interests  of  the 
non-possessing  people  are  not  protected.  Anarchists  say  that  there^) 
should  be  no  class  interests,  but  that  every  human  being  should  have 
free  access  to  the  means  of  existence  and  that  the  pantries  of  mother- earth 
should  be  accessible  to  all  of  her  children.  One  part  of  the  great  human 
family  has  no  right  to  deprive  their  brothers  and  sisters  of  their  legiti- 
mate place  at  the  common  table,  which  is  set  so  richly  by  generous  moth- 
er-nature for  all.  Anarchists,  as  well  as  all  other  thinking  people,  claim, 
that  in  the  present  society,  a  great  number  of   people  are  deprived  of  a 


80  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

decent  existence.  We  demand  the  re-installation  of  the  disinherited!  Is 
this  a  crime  ?  Is  this  an  outrage  upon  society  ?  Are  we  therefore  dan- 
gerous criminals,  whose  lives  should  be  taken  in  the  interests  of  the  com- 
mon g;ood  of  society  ? 

***** 

"Yes,  the  anarchists  demand  the  re-installation  of  the  disinherited 
members  of  the  human  family.  It  is,  therefore,  quite  natural  that  the 
privileged  classes  should  hate  them.  Why,  do  not  wrong  doing  parties 
always  hate  those  who  disclose  the  nature  of  their  transactions  and  open 
the  eyes  of  their  ignorant  victims  ?  Certainly  they  do.  The  anarchists 
are  very  much  hated  by  the  extortioners ;  indeed,  they  are  proud  of  it.  To 
them,  this  is  a  proof  that  they  are  on  the  right  road.  But  the  ruling 
classes  very  cunningly  play  the  role  of  the  thief,  who,  when  pursued  by 
his  discoverers,  cries  out,  'stop  the  thief,'  and  by  this  manipulation  suc- 
ceeds in  making  good  his  escape.  The  anarchists  have  proven  that  the 
existing  form  of  society  is  based  upon  the  exploitation  of  one  class  by 
another;  in  plain  words,  upon  legalized  robbery.  They  say  that  few  per- 
sons have  no  right  whatever,  to  monopolize  the  resources  of  nature;  and 
they  urge  the  victims,  the  toilers,  to  take  possession  of  the  means  of  pro- 
duction, which  belong  to  the  people  in  common,  and  thus  secure  the  full 
benefit  of  their  toil.  Anarchists  do  not  want  to  deprive  the  capitalists  of 
their  existence,  but  they  protest  against  the  capitalists  depriving  the  toilers 
of  their  right  to  a  decent  existence.  Should  the  communistic  form  of 
production  prevail,  the  capitalists  of  to-day  would  not  have  to  starve; 
they  would  be  situated  just  as  comfortably  and  would  be  just  as  happy 
(yea,  happier  than  they  are  now)  as  the  rest  of  the  people.  But,  certainly 
they  would  have  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  production  and  be  satisfied 
with  their  respective  share  of  the  results  of  labor,  performed  in  common 
with  their  fellowmen.  The  strongest  bulwark  of  the  capitalistic  system  is 
the  ignorance  of  its  victims.  The  average  toiler  shakes  his  head  like  the 
incredulous  Thomas,  when  one  tries  to  make  plausible  to  him  that  he  is 
held  in  economic  bondage.  And  yet  this  is  so  easily  to  be  seen  if  one  only 
takes  the  pains  to  think  a  little.  Working  at  my  trade  alongside  my  col- 
leagues, whom  I  tried  to  convince  of  my  ideas,  I  used  to  tell  them  a  story 
about  some  foxes :  '  Several  foxes,  in  speculating  about  some  scheme  which 
would  enable  them  to  live  without  hunting  for  food  themselves,  succeeded 
at  last  in  discovering  one.  They  took  possession  of  all  the  springs  and 
other  water-places.  Now,  as  the  other  animals  came  to  quench  their 
thirst,  the  foxes  said  unto  them:  The  water-places  belong  to  us ;  if  you 
want  to  drink,  you  must  bring  us  something  in  return,  you  must  bring  us 
food  for  compensation.  The  other  animals  were  foolish  enough  to  obey, 
and,  in  order  to  drink,  they  had  to  hunt  the  whole  day  for  food  for  the 
foxes,  so  that  they  themselves  had  to  live  very  meagerly.  I  asked  one  of 
my  colleagues,  who  was  prominent  as  a  denunciator  of  socialism,  what  his 
opinion  was  concerning  the  just  mentioned  story.  He  said  that  the  ani- 
mals who  were  thus  swindled  by  the  foxes  were  very  foolish  in  obeying 
them,  and  ought  to  drive  the  latter  away  from  the  water-places.  When  I 
directed  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  similar  practice  was  being  culti- 
vated in  modem  society,  with  the  only  difference  that  the  role  of  the  foxes 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  81 

was  occupied  by  the  capitalists,  and  the  water-places  were  represented  by 
the  moans  of  production,  and  that  he  (my  colleague)  was  very  inconsistent 
in  condemning  the  one  and  defending  the  other,  he  owed  me  the  answer. 
This,  for  instance,  illustrates  the  ignorance  and  indifference  of  the  average 
workingmeii.  In  the  case  of  the  foxes,  they  see  no  more  and  no  less  than 
robbery  in  their  schemes,  whilst  in  the  case  of  the  capitalists  they  approve 
of  their  methods. 

"  Many  inconsistent  objections  to  anarchism  are  being  made  by  its 
opponents.  Some  people  have  the  impression  that  in  an  anarchistic 
society,  where  there  is  nobody  to  govern  and  nobody  to  be  governed, ^very 
person  would  be  isolated.  This  is  false.  Men  have  implanted  by  nature 
an  impulse  to  associate  with  their  fellow  men.  In  a  free  society  mea 
would  form  economic  as  well  as  social  associations;  but  all  organizations 
would  be  voluntary,  not  compulsory.  As  I  have  asserted  before,  laws  and 
the  violations  thereof,  crimes,  are  attributed  to  the  institution  of  private 
property,  especially  to  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  means  of  existence, 
to  degradation  and  want.  When  the  institution  of  private  property  will 
be  abolished;  when  economic  and  social  equalities  will  be  established; 
when  misery  and  want  will  belong  to  the  past,  then  crime  will  be  unknown 
and  laws  will  become  superfluous.  It  is  a  wrong  assertion  when  people 
claim  that  a  man  is  a  criminal  because  of  a  natural  disposition  to  crime. 
A  man,  as  a  rule,  is  but  the  reflex  of  the  conditions  which  surround  him. 
In  a  society,  which  places  no  obstacles  in  the  road  of  free  development  of 
men,  and  which  gives  everybody  an  equal  share  to  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness, there  will  be  no  course  which  will  induce  men  to  become  bad. 

"  The  legalized  private-property  system  gives  birth  to  crime  and  at 
the  same  time  punishes  it  because  it  exists.  The  mother  punishes  her 
own. child  because  it  is  bom.  Do  away  with  the  systems  that  produce 
evils  and  the  latter  will  vanish.  The  removal  of  the  cause  is  synonymous 
with  the  removal  of  the  effects;  but  the  social  diseases  will  never  be  cured 
if  you  declare  war  against  the  victims  and  on  the  other  hand  defend  the 
cause  which  produced  them.  If  one  has  the  small-pox  it  would  not  cure 
the  disease  if  one  would  scratch  the  scabs  off.  The  disease  in  this  case  is 
the  system  of  private -property,  and  the  scabs  its  evil  effects. 

"How  will  the  anarchists  realize  their  ideas?  What  means  do  they 
intend  to  employ  to  accomi)lish  the  realization  of  a  free  society.  Much 
has  boon  written  and  talked  on  this  subject,  and,  as  an  avowed  anarchist, 
I  will  in  plain  terms  give  my  individual  opinion  to  the  readers  of  this 
journal.  The  *  anarchism'  itself  does  not  indicate  force;  on  the  contrary 
it  means  peace.  But  I  believe  that  everybody  who  has  studied  the  true 
character  of  the  capitalistic  form  of  society,  and  who  will  not  deceive  him- 
self, will  agree  with  me  that  now  and  never  will  the  ruling  classes  aban- 
don their  privileges  peaceably.  Anarchism  demands  a  thorough  trans- 
formation of  society,  the  total  abolition  of  the  private -property  system. 
Now,  history  shows  us  that  even  reforms  within  the  frame  of  the  existing 
society  have  never  been  accomplished  without  the  force  of  arms.  Feudal- 
ism received  its  death  blow  through  the  great  French  revolution  a  century 
ago,  which  at  the  same  time  gave  form  to  modern  capitalism.  Capitalism 
now  is  speedily  attaining  its  most  extreme  character,  that  is,  it  is  develop- 


82  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    AI^AECHISM. 

ing  into  monopolism.  Wealth  concentrates  itself  more  and  more  in  a  few 
hands  and  the  misery  and  poverty  of  the  great  mass  of  people  is  conse- 
quently enlarging  in  the  same  degree.  The  rich  ^et  richer  and  the  poor 
poorer.  Like  the  ruling  classes  in  the  eighteenth  century,  so  the  same 
classes  at  the  eve  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  deaf  to  the  complaints  and 
warnings  of  the  disinherited,  and  blind  to  the  misery  and  degradation 
which  surround  their  luxuriously  outfitted  palaces.  The  natural  result 
will  be  that  perhaps  before  the  nineteenth  century  will  wing  its  last  hours 
the  people  will  arise  en  masse,  expropriate  the  privileged  and  proclaim 
the  freedom  of  the  human  race.  It  is  wrong  if  people  assert  that  the 
anarchists  will  be  responsible  for  the  coming  revolution.  No,  the  drones 
of  society  are  the  parties  who  will  have  to  answer  to  the  charge  of  being 
the  cause  of  the  prospective  uprising  of  the  people;  for  the  rich  and 
mighty  have  ears  and  hear  not,  and  eyes  and  yet  see  not. 

"To  abolish  chattel  slavery  in  this  country  a  long  and  awful  war 
took  place.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  indemnification  was  offered 
for  their  losses,  the  slaveholders  would  not  bestow  freedom  upon  their 
slaves.  Now,  in  my  judgment,  he  who  believes  that  the  modern  slave 
holders — the  capitalists — would  voluntarily,  without  being  forced  to  do 
so,  give  up  their  privileges  and  set  free  their  wage-slaves,  are  poor  stu- 
dents. Capitalists  possess  too  much  egotism  to  give  way  to  reason.  Their 
egotism  is  so  enormous  that  they  even  refuse  to  grant  subordinate  and 
insignificant  concessions.  Capitalists  and  syndicates,  for  instance,  rather 
lose  millions  of  dollars  than  to  accept  the  eight-hour  labor  system.  Would 
a  peaceable  solution  of  the  social  question  be  possible,  the  anarchists 
would  be  the  first  ones  to  rejoice  over  it. 

"But  is  it  not  a  fact  that  on  the  occasion  of  almost  every  strike  the 
minions  of  the  institution  of  private  property — militia,  police,  deputy 
sheriffs,  yea,  even  federal  troops — are  being  called  to  the  scenes  of  the 
conflict  between  capital  and  labor,  in  order  to  protect  the  interests  of 
capital.  Did  it  ever  happen  that  the  interests  of  labor  were  guarded  by 
these  forces  ?  What  peaceable  means  should  the  toilers  employ  ?  There 
is,  for  example,  the  strike.  If  the  ruling  classes  want  to  enforce  the  'law' 
they  can  have  every  striker  arrested  and  punished  for  '  intimidation'  and 
conspiracy.  A  strike  can  only  be  successful  if  the  striking  workingmen 
prevent  their  places  being  occupied  by  others.  But  this  prevention  is  a 
crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  Boycott!  In  several  states  the  'courts  of 
justice'  have  decided  that  the  boycott  is  a  violation  of  the  law,  and  in  con- 
sequence thereof  a  number  of  boycotters  have  had  the  pleasure  of  examin- 
ing the  inner  construction  of  penitentiaries  '  for  conspiracy'  against  the 
interests  of  capital.  'But,'  says  some  apostle  of  harmony,  'there  is 
something  left  which  will  help  us;  there  is  the  ballot.'  No  doubt  many 
people  who  say  this  are  honest  in  their  belief. 

"But  scarcely  did  the  workingmen  participate  in  the  elections  as  a 
class,  many  representatives  of  '  law  and  order '  advocate  a  limitation  (in 
mf'.ny  instances  even  the  total  abolition)  of  the  right  of  the  proletarian  to 
vote.  People  who  read  the  Chicago  Tribune  and  Times  and  other  repre- 
sentative capitalistic  organs,  will  confirm  my  statement.  The  propaganda 
among  capitalists  in  favor  of  limiting  the  right  to  vote  tj  t:ix  pavers — 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  83 

property  owners — only,  is  increasing  constantly,  and  will  bo  realized 
whenever  the  political  movement  of  the  workingmen  becomes  really  dan^ 
gerous  to  the  interests  of  capital.  The  '  Law  and  Order  League '  of  capi- 
talists, recently  organized  all  over  the  country  to  defeat  the  demands  of 
organized  labor,  has  declared  that  the  workingmen  must  not  bd  allowed 
to  obtain  power  over  the  ballot  box.     They  have  so  resolved  everywhere. 

"The  anarchists  are  not  blind.  They  see  the  development  of  things 
and  predict  that  a  collision  between  the  plebeians  and  patricians  is  inevita- 
ble. Therefore  in  time  for  the  coming  struggle — to  arms!  If  threatening 
clouds  are  visible  on  the  horizon,  I  advise  my  fellow-man  to  carry  an 
umbrella  with  him,  so  he  will  not  get  wet.  Am  I  then  the  cause  of  the 
rain  ?  No.  So  let  me  say  plainly  that,  in  my  opinion,  only  by  the  force 
of  arms  can  the  wage  slaves  make  their  way  out  of  capitalistic  bondage. 

"As  the  court  as  well  as  the  states- attorney  have  plainly  said,  the  ver- 
dict of  death  was  rendered  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  the  anarchistic  and 
the  socialistic  movement.  But  I  am  satisfied  that  just  the  contrary  has 
been  accomplished  by  this  barbarous  measure.  Thousands  of  workingmen 
have  been  led  by  our  'conviction'  to  study  anarchism,  and  if  we  are  exe- 
cuted, we  can  ascend  the  scaffold  with  the  satisfaction  that  by  our  death, 
we  have  advanced  our  noble  cause  more  than  we  could  possibly  have  done 
had  we  grown  As  old  as  Methusalah." 


Address  of  Louis  Lingg. 

"Court  of  Justice!  With  the  same  irony  with  which  you  have 
regarded  my  efforts  to  win,  in  this  'free  land  of  America,'  a  livelihood 
such  as  human  kind  is  worthy  to  enjoy,  do  you  now,  after  condemning  me 
to  death,  concede  me  the  li])erty  of  making  a  final  speech. 

"I  accept  your  concession;  but  it  is  only  for  the  purpose  of  exposing 
the  injustice,  the  calumnies,  and  the  outrages  which  have  been  heaped 
upon  me. 

"You  have  accused  me  of  murder,  and  convicted  me:  what  proof  have 
you  brought  that  I  am  guilty  ?  * 

"  In  the  first  place,  you  have  brought  this  fellow  Seliger  to  testify 
against  me.  Him  I  have  helped  to  make  bombs,  and  you  have  further 
proven  that  with  the  assistance  of  another,  I  took  those  bombs  to  No.  58 
Clybourne  avenue,  but  what  you  have  not  proven — even  with  the  assist- 
ance of  your  bought  'squealer,'  Seliger,  who  would  appear  to  have  acted 
such  a  prominent  part  in  the  affair — is  that  any  of  those  bombs  were  taken 
to  the  haymarket. 

"A  couple  of  chemists  also,  have  been  brought  here  as  specialists,  yet 
they  could  only  state  that  the  metal  of  which  the  haymarket  bomb  was 
made  bore  a  certain  resemblance  to  those  bombs  of  mine,  and  your  Mr. 
Ingham  has  vainly  endeavored  to  deny  that  the  bombs  were  quite  differ- 
ent. He  had  to  admit  that  there  was  a  differe^nce  of  a  full  half  inch  in 
their  diameters,  although  he  suppressed  the  fact  that  there  was  also  a  dif- 
ference of  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  the  thickness  of  the  shell.  This  is  the 
kind  of  evidence  upon  which  you  have  convicted  me. 


84        '  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

*'It  is  not  miirder,  Jiowever,  of  wliich  you  have  convicted  me.  The 
judge  has  stated  that  much  only  this  morning  in  his  resume  of  the  case, 
and  Grinnell  has  repeatedly  asserted  that  we  were  being  tried,  not  for 
murder,  but  for  anarchy,  so  that  the  condemnation  is — that  I  am  an 
anarchist ! 

"What  is  anarchy?  This  is  a  subject  which  my  comrades  have 
•explained  with  sufficient  clearness,  and  it  is  unneccessary  for  me  to  go 
over  it  again.  They  have  told  you  plainly  enough  what  our  aims  are. 
The  state's  attorney,  however,  has  not  given  you  that  information.  He 
ha&  merely  criticized  and  condemned  not  the  doctrines  of  anarchy,  but  our 
methods  of  giving  them  practical  effect,  and  even  here  he  has  maintained 
a  discreet  silence  as  to  the  fact  that  those  methods  were  forced  upon  us  by 
the  brutality  of  the  police.  Grinnell' s  own  proffered  remedy  for  our 
grievances  is  the  ballot  and  combination  of  trades  unions,  and  Ingham  has 
even  avowed  the  desirability  of  a  six-hour  movement !  But  the  fact  is, 
that  at  every  attempt  to  wield  the  ballot,  at  every  endeavor  to  combine  the 
efforts  of  workingmen,  you  have  displayed  the  brutal  violence  of  the  police 
club,  and  this  is  why  I  have  recommended  rude  force,  to  combat  the  ruder 
force  of  the  police. 

"You  have  charged  me  with  despising  'law  and  order.'  What  does 
your  *law  and  order'  amount  to?  Its  representatives  ar«  the  police,  and 
they  have  thieves  in  theii'  ranks.  Here  sits  Captain  Schaaclj.  He  has 
himself  admitted  to  me  that  my  hat  and  books  have  been  stolen  from  him 
in  his  office — stolen  by  policemen.  These  are  your  defenders  of  property 
rights ! 

"The  detectives  again,  who  arrested  me,  forced  their  way  into  my 
room  like  house  breakers,  under  false  pretences,  giving  the  name  of  a  car- 
penter, Lorenz,  of  Burlington  street.  They  have  sworn  that  I  was  alone 
in  my  room,  therein  perjuring  themselvea  You  have  not  subpoenaed  this 
lady,  Mrs.  Klein,  who  was  present,  and  could  have  sworn  that  the  afore- 
said detectives  broke  into  my  room  under  false  pretenses,  and  that  their 
testimonies  are  perjured. 

"But  let  us  go  further.  In  Schaack  we  have  a  captain  of  the  police, 
and  he  also  has  perjured  himself.  He  has  sworn  that  I  admitted  to  him 
being  present  at  the  Monday  night  meeting,  whereas,  I  distinctly 
informed  him  that  I  was  at  a  carpenter's  meeting  at  Zepf's  Hall.  He  has 
sworn  again  that  I  told  him  that  I  had  learned  how  to  make  bombs  from 
Herr  Most's  book.     That,  also,  is  a  perjury. 

"  Let  us  go  still  a  step  higher  among  these  representatives  of  law  and 
order.  Grinnell  and  his  associates  have  permitted  perjury,  and  I  say  that 
they  have  done  it  knowingly.  The  proof  has  been  adduced  by  my  counsel, 
and  with  my  own  eyes  I  have  seen  Grinnell  point  out  to  Gilmer,  eight 
days  before  he  came  upon  the  stand,  the  persons  of  the  men  whom  he  was 
to  swear  against. 

"  While  I,  as  I  have  stated  above,  believe  in  force  for  the  sake  of 
winning  for  myself  and  fellow- workmen  a  livelihood  such  as  men  ought  to 
have,  Grinnell*  on  the  other  hand,  through  his  police  and  other  rogues, 
has  suborned  prejury  in  order  to  murder  seven  men,  of  whom  I  am  one. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    AN.VRCHISM.  85 

"  Grinnell  had  the  pitiful  courage  here  in  the  courtroom,  where  I 
could  not  defend  myself,  to  call  me  a  coward!  The  scoundrel!  A  fellow 
who  has  leagued  himself  with  a  parcel  of  base,  hireling  knaves,  to  bring 
me  to  the  gallows.  Why  ?  For  no  earthly  reason  save  a  contemptible 
selfishness — a  desire  to  'rise  in  the  world' — to  'make  money,'  forsooth. 

"  This  wretch — who,  by  means  of  the  perjuries  of  other  wretches  is 
going  to  murder  seven  men — is  the  fellow  who  calls  me  '  coward  !'  And 
yet  you  blame  me  for  despising  such  '  defenders  of  the  law ' — such  un- 
speakable hypocrites! 

"  Anarchy  means  no  domination  or  authority  of  one  man  over  anoth- 
er, yet  you  call  that  'disorder.'  A  system  which  advocates  no  such 
*  order '  as  shall  require  the  services  of  rogues  and  thieves  to  defend  it  you 
call  'disorder.' 

"  The  Judge  himself  was  forced  to  admit  that  the  state's  attorney  had 
not  been  able  to  connect  me  with  the  bomb  throwing.  The  latter  knows 
how  to  get  around  it,  however.  He  charges  me  with  being  a  '  conspira- 
tor.' How  does  he  prove  it?  Simply  by  declaring  the  International 
Workingmens'  Association  to  be  a  'conspiracy.'  I  was  a  member  of  that 
body,  HO  he  has  the  charge  securely  fastened  on  me.  Excellent !  Nothing 
is  too  difficult  for  the  genius  of  a  state's  attorney! 

"  It  is  hardly  iocumbent  upon  me  to  review  the  relations  which  I 
occupy  to  my  companions  in  misfortune.  I  can  say  truly  and  openly  that 
I  am  not  as  intimate  with  my  fellow  prisoners  as  I  am  with  Captain 
Schaack. 

"  The  universal  misery,  the  ravages  of  the  capitalistic  hyena  have 
brought  us  together  in  our  agitation,  not  as  persons,  but  as  workers  in  the 
same  cause,     Such  is  the  '  conspiracy '  of  which  you  have  convicted  me. 

"  I  protest  against  the  conviction,  against  the  decision  of  the  court.  I 
do  not  recogni'ze  your  law,  jumbled  together  as  it  is  by  the  nobodies  of  by- 
gone centuries,  and  I  do  not  recognize  the  decision  of  the  court.  My  own 
counsel  have  conclusively  proven  from  the  decisions  of  equally  high  courts 
that  a  new  trail  must  be  granted  us.  The  state's  attorney  quotes  three 
times  as  many  decisions  from  perhaps  still  higher  courts  to  prove  the 
opposite,  and  I  am  convinced  that  if,  in  another  trial,  these  decisions  should 
be  supported  by  twenty-five  volumes,  they  will  adduce  one  hundred  in 
8up})ort  of  the  contrary,  if  it  is  anaichists  who  are  to  be  tried.  And  not 
even  under  such  a  law,  a  law  that  a  schoolboy  must  despise,  not  even  by 
such  methods  have  they  been  able  to  '  legally  '  convict  us. 

"  They  have  suborned  perjury  to  boot. 

"  I  tell  you  frankly  and  openly,  I  am  for  force.  I  have  already  told 
Captain  Schaack,  '  if  they  use  cannons  against  us,  we  shall  use  dynamite 
against  them." 

"  I  repeat  that  I  am  the  enemy  of  the  '  order '  of  to-day,  and  I  repeat 
that,  with  all  my  powers,  so  long  as  breath  remains  in  me,  I  shall  combat 
it.  I  declare  again,  frankly  and  oj^enly,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  using  force. 
I  have  told  Captain  Schaack,  and  I  stand  by  it,  '  if  you  cannonade  us  we 
shall  dynamite  you.'  You  laugh!'  Perhaps  you  think,  'you'll  throw  no 
more  bombs;'  but  let  me  assure  you  that  I  die  happy  on  the  j  allows  so 
confident   am   I   that    the   hundreds   and    thousands   to   whom   I   have 


86  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

spoken  will  remember  my  words;  and  when  you  shall  have  hanged 
us,  then,  mark  my  words,  they  will  do  the  bomb-throwing!  In  this 
hope  do  I  say  to  you:  'I  despise  you.  I  despise  your  order;  your 
laws,  your  force-propped  authority.'     Hang  me  for  it! 


George  Engell,^  on  Anarchism. 

"  This  is  the  first  occasion  of  my  standing  before  an  American  court, 
and  on  this  occasion  it  is  murder  of  which  I  am  accused.  And  for  what 
reasons  do  I  stand  here  ?  For  what  reasons  am  I  accused  of  murder  ? 
The  same  that  caused  me  to  leave  Germany — the  poverty — the  misery 
of  the  working  classes. 

"And  here,  too,  in  this  'free  republic,'  in  the  richest  country  of  the 
world,  there  are  numerous  proletarians  for  whom  no  table  is  set;  who,  as 
outcasts  of  society,  stray  joylessly  through  life.  I  have  seen  human  beings 
gather  their  daily  food  from  the  garbage  heaps  of  the  streets,  to  quiet 
therewith  their  knawing  hunger. 

"  I  have  read  of  occurrences  in  the  daily  papers  which  proves  to  me 
that  here,  too,  in  this  great  '  free  land,'  people  are  doomed  to  die  of  star- 
vation. This  brought  me  to  reflection,  and  to  the  question:  What  are 
the  peculiar  causes  that  could  bring  about  such  a  condition  of  society  ?  I 
then  began  to  give  our  political  institutions  more  attention  than  formerly. 
My  discoveries  brought  to  me  the  knowledge  that  the  same  society  evils 
exist  here  that  exist  in  Germany.  This  is  the  explanation  of  what  induced 
me  to  study  the  social  question,  to  become  a  socialist.  And  I  proceeded  with 
all  the  means  at  my  command,  to  make  myself  familiar  with  the  new 
doctrine. 

"  Wiien  in  1 878,  I  came  here  from  Philadelphia,  I  strove  to  better  my 
condition,  believing  it  would  be  less  difficult  to  establish  a  means  of  liveli- 
hood here  than  in  Philadelphia,  where  I  had  tried  in  vain  to  make  a  living. 
But  here,  too,  I  found  myself  disappointed.  I  began  to  understand  that 
it  made  no  difference  to  the  proletarian,  whether  he  lived  in  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  or  Chicago.  In  the  factory  in  which  I  worked  I  became 
acquainted  with  a  man  who  pointed  out  to  me  the  causes  that  brought 
about  the  difficult  and  fruitless  battles  of  the  workingmen  for  the  means 
of  existence.  He  explained  to  me,  by  the  logic  of  scientific  socialism,  how 
mistaken  I  was  in  believing  that  I  could  make  an  independent  living  by 
the  toil  of  my  hands,  so  long  as  machinery,  raw  material,  etc.,  were  guar- 
anteed to  the  capitalists  as  private  property  by  the  State.  That  I  might 
further  enlighten  my  mind  in  regard  to  these  facts,  I  purchased  with 
money  earned  by  myself  and  family,  socialogical  works,  among  them  those 
of  LaSalle,  Marx,  and  Henry  George.  After  the  study  of  these  books,  it 
became  clear  to  me  why  a  workingman  could  not  decently  exist  in  this  rich 
country.  I  now  began  to  think  of  ways  and  means  to  remedy  this.  I  hit 
upon  the  ballot  box;  for  it  had  been  told  me  so  often  that  this  was  the 
means  by  which  workingmen  could  better  their  condition. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  87 

"I  took  p£irt  in  politics  with  the  earnestness  of  a  good  citizen;  but  I 
was  soon  to  find  that  the  teachings  of  a  '  free  ballot  box '  are  a  myth,  and 
that  I  had  again  been  duped.  I  came  to  the  opinion  that  as  long  as  work- 
ingmen  are  economically  enslaved  they  cannot  be  politically  free.  It  became 
clear  to  me  that  the  working  classes  would  never  bring  about  a  form  of 
society  guaranteeing  work,  bread,  and  a  happy  life  by  means  of  the  ballot. 

"Before  I  had  lost  my  faith  in  the  ballot-box  the  following  occur- 
rences transpired  which  proved  to  me  that  the  politicians  of  this  country 
were  through  and  through  corrupt.  When,  in  the  fourteenth  ward,  in 
which  I  lived  and  had  the  right  to  vote,  the  social- democratic  party  had 
grown  to  such  dimensions  as  to  make  it  dangerous  for  the  republican  and 
democratic  parties,  the  latter  forthwith  united  and  took  stand  against  the 
social  democrats.  This,  of  course,  was  natural;  for  are  not  their  interests 
identical  ?  And  as  the  social-democrats  nevertheless  elected  their  candi- 
dates, they  were  beaten  out  of  the  fruits  of  their  victory  by  the  corrupt 
schemes  of  the  old  political  parties.  The  ballot-box  was  stolen  and  the 
votes  so  'corrected'  that  it  became  possible  for  the  opposition  to  proclaim 
their  candidates  elected.  The  workingmen  sought  to  obtain  justice  through 
the  coui-ts,  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  The  trial  cost  them  fifteen  hundred 
dollars,  but  their  rights  they  never  obtained. 

"Soon  enough  I  found  that  political  corruption  had  burrowed  through 
the  ranks  of  the  social -democrats.  I  left  this  party  and  joined  the  Inter- 
national Working  People's  Association,  that  was  just  being  organized.  The 
members  of  that  body  have  the  firm  conviction  that  the  workingman  can 
free  himself  from  the  tyranny  of  capitalism  only  through  force ;  just  as  all 
advances  of  which  history  speaks,  have*  been  brought  about  through  force 
alone.  We  see  from  the  history  of  this  country  that  the  first  colonists  won 
their  liberty  only  through  force ;  that  through  force  slavery  was  abolished, 
and  just  as  the  man  who  agitated  against  slavery  in  this  country,  had  to 
ascend  the  gallows,  so  also  must  we.  He  who  speaks  for  the  workingman 
to-day  must  hang.  And  why  ?  Because  this  republic  is  not  governed  by 
people  who  have  obtained  their  ofiice  honestly. 

"Who  are  the  leaders  at  Washington  that  are  to  guard  the  interests 
of  this  nation  ?  Have  they  been  elected  by  the  people,  or  by  the  aid  of 
their  money  ?  They  have  no  right  to  make  laws  for  us,  because  they  were 
not  elected  by  the  people.  These  are  the  reasons  why  I  have  lost  all 
respect  for  American  laws. 

"The  fact  that  through  the  improvement  of  machinery  so  many  men 
are  thrown  out  of  employment,  or  at  best,  working  but  half  the  time, 
brings  them  to  reflection.  They  have  leisure,  and  they  consider  how  their 
conditions  can  be  changed.  Reading  matter  that  has  been  written  in  their 
interest  gets  into  their  hands,  and  faulty  though  their  education  may  be, 
they  can  nevertheless  cull  the  truths  contained  in  those  writings.  This, 
of  course,  is  not  pleasant  for  the  capitalistic  class,  but  they  cannot  prevent 
it.  And  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  in  a  comparatively  short  time  the 
great  mass  of  ])roletarians  will  understand  that  they  can  be  freed  from 
their  bonds  only  through  socialism.  One  must  consider  what  Carl  Schurz 
said  scarcely  eight  years  ago:  That,  'in  this  country  there  is  no  space  for 
socialism;'  and  yet  to-day  socialism  stands  before  the  bars  of  the  court. 


88  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

For  this  reason  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  if  these  few  years  suffice  to 
make  socialism  one  of  the  burning  questions  of  the  day,  it  will  require  but 
a  short  time  more  to  put  it  in  practical  operation. 

"All  that  I  have  to  say  in  regard  to  my  conviction  is,  that  I  was  not 
at  all  surprised ;  for  it  has  ever  been  that  the  men  who  have  endeavored  to 
enlighten  their  fellow  man  have  been  thrown  into  prison  or  put  to  death, 
as  was  the  case  with  John  Brown.  I  have  found,  long  ago,  that  the  work- 
ingman  has  no  more  rights  here  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  The 
state's  attorney  has  stated  that  we  were  not  citizens.  I  have  been  a  citi- 
zen this  long  time;  but  it  does  not  occur  to  me  to  appeal  for  my  rights  as 
a  citizen,  knowing  as  well  as  I  do  that  this  does  not  make  a  particle  of 
difference.  Citizen  or  not — as  a  working  man  I  am  without  rights,  and 
therefore  I  respect  neither  your  rights  nor  your  laws,  which  are  made  and 
directed  by  one  class  against  the  other;  the  working  class. 

"Of  what  does  my  crime  consist? 

"  That  I  have  labored  to  bring  about  a  system  of  society  by  which  it 
is  impossible  for  one  to  hoard  millions,  through  the  improvements  in 
machinery,  while  the  great  masses  sink  to  degradation  and  misery.  As 
water  and  air  are  free  to  all,  so  should  the  inventions  of  scientific  men  be 
applied  for  the  benefit  of  all.  The  statute  laws  we  have  are  in  opposition 
to  the  laws  of  nature,  in  that  they  rob  the  great  masses  of  their  rights  to 
*life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.' 

"I  am  too  much  a  man  of  feeling  not  to  battle  against  the  societary 
conditions  of  to-day.  Every  considerate  person  must  combat  a  system 
which  makes  it  possible  for  the  individual  to  rake  and  hoard  millions  in  a 
few  years,  while,  on  the  other  side,  thousands  become  tramps  and  beggars. 

''Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  under  such  circumstances  men  arise 
who  strive  and  struggle  to  create  other  conditions,  where  the  humane 
humanity  shall  take  precedence  of  all  other  considerations.  This  is  the 
aim  of  socialism,  and  to  this  I  joyfully  subscribe. 

"  The  state's  attorney  said  here  that  '  anarchy '  was  'on  trial.'  " 

"  Anarchism  and  socialism  are  as  much  alike,  in  my  opinion,  as  one 
egg  is  to  another.  They  differ  only  in  their  tactics.  The  anarchists  have 
abandoned  the  way  of  liberating  humanity  which  socialists  would  take  to 
accomplish  this.  I  say :  Believe  no  more  in  the  ballot,  and  use  all  other 
means  at  your  command.  Because  we  have  done  so  we  stand  arraigned 
here  to-day — because  we  have  pointed  out  to  the  people  the  proper  way. 
The  anarchists  are  being  hunted  and  persecuted  for  this  in  every  clime, 
but  in  the  face  of  it  all  anarchism  is  gaining  more  and  more  adherents, 
and  if  you  cut  off  our  opportunities  of  open  agitation,  then  will  all  the 
work  be  done  secretly.  If  the  state's  attorney  thinks  he  can  root  out 
socialism  by  hanging  seven  of  our  men  and  condemning  the  other  to  fif- 
teen years  servitude,  he  is  laboring  under  a  very  wrong  impression.  The 
tactics  simi)ly  will  be  changed — that  is  all.  No  power  on  earth  can  rob 
the  workingman  of  his  knowledge  of  how  to  make  bombs— and  that  knowl- 
edge he  possessess.  I  do  not  wish  for  state's  attorney  Grinnell  and  his 
assistant,  Furthman,  the  fate  of  the  Chief  of  Police  Eumpff. 

"If  anarchism  could  be  rooted  out,  it  would  have  been  accomplished 
long  ago  in  other  countries.     On  the  night  on  which  the  first  bomb  in  this 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  89 

t 

country  was  thrown,  I  was  in  my  apartments  at  home.  I  knew  nothing  of 
the  conspiracy  which  the  state's  attorney  pretends  to  have  discovered, 

''It  is  true  I  am  acquainted  with  several  of  my  fellow  defendants; 
with  most  of  them,  however,  but  slightly,  through  seeing  them  at  meet- 
ings, and  hearing  them  speak.  Nor  do  I  deny  that  I  too  have  spoken  at. 
meetings,  saying  that,  if  every  working  man  had  a  bomb  in  his  pocket, 
capitalistic  nile  would  soon  come  to  an  end. 

"  That  is  my  opinion,  and  my  wish;  it  became  my  conviction,  when  I 
mentioned  the  wickedness  of  the  capitalistic  conditions  of  the  day. 

"  When  hundreds  of  workingmen  have  been  destroyed  in  mines  in 
consequence  of  faulty  preparations,  for  the  repairing  of  which  the  owners- 
were  too  stingy,  the  capitalistic  papers  have  scarcely  noticed  it.  See  with 
what  satisfaction  and  cruelty  they  make  their  report,  when  here  and  there- 
workingmen  have  been  fired  upon,  while  striking  for  a  few  cents  increase 
in  their  wages,  that  they  might  earn  only  a  scanty  subsistence. 

"  Can  any  one  feel  any  respect  for  a  government  that  accords  rights 
only  to  the  privileged  classes,  and  none  to  the  workers  ?  We  have  seea 
but  recently  how  the  coal  barons  combined  to  form  a  conspiracy  to  raise 
the  price  of  coal,  while  at  the  same  time  reducing  the  already  low  wages 
of  their  men.  Are  they  accused  of  conspiracy  on  that  account  ?  But 
when  workingmen  dare  ask  an  increase  in  tiieir  wages,  the  militia  and  the 
police  are  sent  out  to  shoot  them  down.   . 

"  For  such  a  government  as  this  I  can  feel  no  respect,  and  will  com- 
bat them  despite  their  power,  despite  their  police,  despite  their  spies. 

"  I  hate  and  combat,  not  the  individual  capitalist,  but  the  system  that 
gives  him  those  privileges.  My  greatest  wish  is  that  workingmen  may 
recognize  who  are  their  friends  and  who  are  their  enemies. 

"As  to  my  conviction,  brought  about  as  it  was,  through  capitalistic 
influence,  I  have  not  one  word  to  say. 


Samuel  Fielden  on  Socialism  and  Anarchism. 

"  I  came  to  the  United  States  in  1868.  I  have  preached  in  Ohio,  and 
I  came  to  Chicago  in  1869.  There  are  monuments  of  beauty,  of  stability, 
and  evidences  of  progress  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  you  can  hardly  go 
through  a  street  in  this  city  that  I  have  not  dropped  my  sweat  upon,  that 
had  been  produced  by  the  labor  of  my  hand.  And  just  here  let  me  tell 
you  that  when  the  indictment  had  been  procured  against  me  and  my 
comrades  here,  it  was  accompanied  by  the  statement  that  these  men  had 
been  deluding  their  dupes  in  order  to  make  money  out  of  them.  When 
the  trial  was  in  progress  the  only  man  who  could  have  answered  the 
question  as  to  whether  we  had  made  money  out  of  our  organization  was 
Zeller,  the  Secretary  of  the  Central  Labor  Union,  and  when  he  was  asked 
the  (question  whether  wo  ever  received  any  money  for  speaking  and  organ- 
izing unions  in  that  organization,  the  gentlemen  who  had  been  instrumental 
in  attaching  that  to  the  indictment  in  order  to  prejudice  the  people  against. 
us  before  the  trial  should  come  on  against  us —  for  there  is  nothing  in  the 


'90  THE    PHIHLOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

world  that  can  prejudice  a  man  so  much  as  to  be  charged  with  having 
imposed  on  some  one  for  mercenary  motives,  and  this  is  creditable  to  society 
- — when  the  trial  came  on  and  this  man  who  could  have  testified  to  that — 
who  could  have  substantiated  it  if  it  had  been  true — was  asked  the  ques- 
tion, each  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  were  interested  in  its  being  proven 
true  for  their  side  of  the  case  at  once  sprang  to  their  feet  and  objected  to 
the  question  being  asked.  We  have  been  tried  by  a  jury  that  have  found 
lis  guilty.     You  will  be  tried  by  a  juiy  now  that  will  find  you  guilty. 

"Being  of  an  inquiring  disposition  or  turn  of  mind,  and  having 
observed  that  there  was  something  wrong  in  our  social  system,  I  attended 
«ome  meetings  of  workingmen  and  compared  what  they  said  with  my  own 
observation.  I  knew  there  was  something  wrong.  My  ideas  did  not 
become  settled  as  to  what  was  the  remedy,  but  when  they  did  I  carried 
the  same  energy  and  the  same  determination  to  bring  about  that  remedy 
that  I  had  applied  to  ideas  which  I  had  possessed  years  before.  There  is 
always  a  period  in  every  individual's  life  when  some  sympathetic  chord  is 
touched  by  some  other  person.  That  is  the  open  sesame  that  carries  con- 
viction. The  ground  may  have  all  been  prepared.  The  evidence  may  all 
have  been  accumulated,  but  it  has  not  formed  any  shape.  In  fact,  the 
child  has  not  been  born.  The  new  idea  has  not  impressed  itself  thoroughly 
when  that  sympathetic  chord  is  touched,  and  the  person  is  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  idea.  It  was  so  in  my  investigation  of 
political  economy.  I  knew  there  was  something  wrong,  but  I  did  not 
know  what  the  remedy  was;  but  discussing  the  condition  of  things  and  the 
different  remedies  one  day,  a  person  said  to  me  that  socialism  meant 
equal  opportunities — and  that  was  the  touch.  From  that  time  I  became 
a  socialist;  I  learned  more  and  more  what  it  was.  I  knew  that  I  had 
found  the  right  thing;  that  I  had  found  the  medicine  that  was  calculated 
to  cui'e  the  ills  of  society.  Having  found  it  I  had  a  right  to  advocate  it, 
and  I  did.  The  constitution  of  the  United  States,  when  it  says :  *  The 
right  of  fi-ee  speech  shall  not  be  abridged,'  gives  every  man  the  right 
to  speak  his  thoughts.  I  have  advocated  the  principles  of  socialism  and 
social  economy,  and  for  that  and  no  other  reason  am  I  here,  and  is  sen- 
tence of  death  to  be  pronounced  upon  me  ?  What  is  socialism  ?  Taking 
somebody  else's  property?  That  is  what  socialism  is  in  the  common 
acceptation  of  the  term.  No.  But  if  I  were  to  answer  it  as  shortly  and 
as  curtly  as  it  is  answered  by  its  enemies,  I  would  say  it  is  preventing 
somebody  else  from  taking  your  property.  But  socialism  is  equality.  So- 
cialism recognizes  the  fact  that  no  man  in  society  is  responsible  for  what 
he  is;  that  all  the  ills  that  are  in  society  are  the  production  of  poverty; 
and  scientific  socialism  says  you  must  go  to  the  root  of  the  evil.  There  is 
no  criminal  statistician  in  the  world  but  will  acknowledge  that  all  crime, 
when  traced  to  its  origin,  is  the  product  of  poverty.  It  has  been  said  that 
it  was  inflammatory  for  me  to  say  that  the  present  social  system  degraded 
men  until  they  became  mere  animals.  Go  through  this  city  into  the  low 
lodging  houses  where  men  are  huddled  together  into  the  smallest  possible 
space,  living  in  an  infernal  atmosphere  of  death  and  disease,  and  I  will 
ask  you  to  draw  your  silks  and  your  broadcloths  close  to  you  when  these 
men  pass  you.     Do  you  think  that  these  men  deliberately,  with  a  full 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  91 

knowledge  of  what  they  are  doing,  choose  to  become  that  class  of  animals  ? 
Not  one  of  them.  They  are  the  products  of  conditions,  of  certain  environ- 
ments in  which  they  were  born,  and  which  have  impelled  them  resistlessly 
into  what  they  are.  And  we  have  this  loadstone.  You  who  wish  it  could 
be  taken  from  the  shoulders  of  society.  What  is  it  ?  When  those  men 
were  children,  put  them  into  an  environment  where  they  have  the  best 
results  of  civilization  around  them,  and  they  will  never  willfully  choose  a 
condition  like  that.  Some  cynic  might  say  that  this  would  be  a  very  nice 
thing  for  these  men.  Society,  with  its  rapidity  of  production  of  the  means 
of  existence,  is  capable  of  doing  that  without  doing  injury  to  a  single 
individual ;  and  the  great  masses  of  wealth  owned  by  individuals  in  this 
and  the  old  world  have  been  produced  in  exactly  the  same  proportion 
as  these  men  have  been  degraded — and  they  never  could  have  been  accu- 
mulated in  any  other  way.  I  do  not  charge  that  every  capitalist  willfully 
and  maliciously  conspires  to  bring  about  these  results;  but  I  do  charge 
that  it  has  been  done,  and  I  do  charge  that  it  is  a  very  undesirable  condition 
of  things,  and  I  claim  that  socialism  would  cure  the  world  of  that  ulcer. 
These  are  my  ideas  in  short,  on  socialism.  The  ultra  patriotic  sentiment 
of  the  American  people — and  I  suppose  the  same  comparative  sentiment 
is  felt  in  England  and  France  and  Germany — is  that  no  man  in  this  coun- 
try need  be  poor.  The  class  who  are  not  poor  think  so.  The  class  who 
are  poor  are  beginning  to  think  differently;  that  under  existing  conditions 
it  is  impossible  that  some  people  should  not  be  poor. 

"Why  is  it  that  we  have  *  over-production?'  And  why  is  it  that  our 
warehouses  are  full  of  goods,  and  our  workshops  have  to  shut  up,  and  our 
workmen  are  turned  out  on  the  highway  because  there  is  nothing  to  do  ? 
What  is  this  tending  to  ?  Let  me  show  the  change  of  conditions  as  shown 
in  Boston  in  forty  years.  Charles  Dickens,  a  man  of  acute  perceptions, 
visited  this  country  forty  years  ago,  and  he  said  that  the  sight  of  a  beggar 
in  the  streets  of  Boston  at  that  time  would  have  created  as  much  conster- 
nation as  the  sight  of  an  angel  with  a  drawn  sword. 

"A  Boston  paper  in  the  winter  of  1884-5  stated  that  there  were  some 
quaiiiers  in  Boston  where  to  own  a  stove  was  to  be  a  comparative  ai'isto- 
crat.  The  poor  people  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  paid  a  certain  sum 
of  money  to  rent  the  holes  on  the  top  of  the  stove  that  belonged  to  the 
aristocrats.  You  see  the  change,  and  there  is  this  comparative  change  in 
the  working  classes  of  that  city,  and  in  every  large  city  in  the  Union.  It 
is  a  noted  fact  that  within  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years  the  farms  of  this 
country  have  been  gradually  going  out  of  the  possession  of  the  actual  cul- 
tivators until  to-day  there  is  a  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  actual  cul- 
tivators of  farms  in  this  country  who  are  renters ;  and  within  twenty  years 
in  the  states  of  Iowa  and  Illinois  the  mortgages  on  farms  have  mcreased 
thirty -three  per  cent  of  the  actual  value  of  the  farms.  Is  it  not  enough  to 
make  any  thinking  man  ask  if  there  is  not  something  wrong  somewhere? 
Possibly  it  would  be  answered  *yes,  a  man  has  a  right  to  inquire  whether 
there  is  something  wrong  or  not,  but  for  God's  sake,  don't  think  that 
socialism  will  do  it  any  good,  or  if  you  do  we  will  hang  you!  It  is  all 
right  to  think,  but  we  will  punish  you  for  your  conclusions.'  Parsons,  in 
his  testimony,  repeated  what  he  had  said  at  the  haymarket  on  the  night 


92  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   AJ^AKCHISM. 

of  May  4,  when  he  stated  that  this  was  an  American  question,  because  the 
patriotic  tricksters  who  have  been  telling  the  people  to  worship  the  Amer- 
ican flag,  while  they  quietly  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  and  robbed 
them — they  have  said  that  this  is  merely  a  European  question.  It  is  an 
American  question,  and  the  close  contact  of  nations  cemented  by  the  facil- 
ities of  civilization,  is  bringing  all  the  questions  that  affect  one  people  to 
affect  all  people  equally  all  over  the  world.  What  affects  the  European 
laborer  and  his  employer  affects  the  American  laborer  and  his  American 
employer,  and  the  relationship  is  the  same  between  the  two  classes.  In 
the  winter  of  1884-5  one  hundred  and  twenty  American  girls  of  fourteen 
and  sixteen  years  of  age  were  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  shutting 
down  of  the  Merrimac  mills  in  Connecticut,  and  they  were  compelled  to 
walk  through  the  bleak  New  England  hills  and  find  refuge  in  out-houses 
and  hay-stacks,  and  numbers  of  them  undoubtedly  found  their  way  to 
lives  of  shame.  And  I  say  here  and  now  that  the  man  who  can  look  upon 
suffering  like  this  and  not  feel  stirred  to  do  something  to  change  such 
conditions,  has  not  got  anything  in  his  heart  but  the  feelings  of  the  tiger, 
hungry  for  prey.  In  this  city  of  Chicago  children  are  working  at  very 
tender  ages.  Going  home  one  very  cold  night  in  the  winter  of  1884,  two 
little  girls  ran  up  to  me  and  begged  of  me  to  go  home  with  them.  I 
asked  them  why.  They  said:  *A  man  down  there  has  been  offering  us 
money.'  It  was  7  o'clock  at  night  and  snowing;  I  asked  them  where  they 
had  been  so  late.  They  said:  *We  have  been  working  in  such  a  store.' 
Children,  babies  turned  out  from  their  mother's  heart  to  make  a  living, 
their  fathers  perhaps  dead — in  this  case  they  were.  The  civilization  that 
will  not  and  cannot  support  a  widow  so  that  she  will  not  have  to  turn  her 
children  out  to  such  temptations  as  that  is  not  worth  respecting,  and  the 
man  who  will  not  try  to  change  it  is  no  man. 

"It  is  a  known  fact  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  a  young,  unmarried 
woman,  who  has  not  a  brother  or  father  to  assist  her,  getting  a  living  in 
the  city  of  Chicago,  with  a  few  exceptions.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  labor 
agitator,  was  asked  by  a  young  lady  to  procure  her  a  position.  He  went 
to  one  of  your  large  establishments,  and  they  said:  'Yes,  we  can  give  her 
a  position,  but  she  has  got  to  dress  tastily  and  nicely  and  neatly,  and  look 
well,  and  we  will  give  her  from  three  to  five  dollars  a  week;'  and  you  pro- 
pose to  get  rid  of  these  things  by  fining  those  who  are  compelled  to  resort 
to  such  extremes  to  live.  I  tell  you  these  things  to  show  you  that  the 
question  is  an  American  question.  It  is  a  question  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 


Albert  R.  Parsons  on  Anarchy. 

"In  the  effort  of  the  prosecution  to  hold  up  our  opinions  to  public 
execration  they  lost  sight  of  the  charge  of  murder.  Disloyalty  to  their 
class,  and  their  boasted  civilization  is  in  their  eyes  a  far  greater  crime  than 
murder. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANABCHISM.  93 

"Anarchy,  in  the  language  of  Grinnell,  is  simply  a  compound  of  rob- 
bery, incendiarism  and  murder.  This  is  the  official  statement  of  Mr. 
Grinnell,  and  against  his  definition  of  anarchy  I  would  put  that  of  Mr. 
Webster.  I  think  that  is  pretty  near  as  good  authority  as  that  gentle- 
man's. 

^'  What  is  anarchy  ?  What  is  the  nature  of  the  dreadful  thing — this 
anarchy,  for  the  holding  of  which  this  man  says  we  ought  to  suffer  death  ? 

"The  closing  hours  of  this  trial,  yes,  for  five  days  the  representatives 
of  a  privileged,  usurped  power  and  of  despotism  sought  to  belie,  misrep- 
resent, and  vilify  the  doctrine  in  which  I  believe.  Now,  sir,  let  me  speak 
of  that  for  a  moment. 

"What  is  anarchism?     What  is  it — what  are  its  doctrines? 

"General  Parsons — for  which  you  are  called  upon  to  die. 

"Mr.  Parsons — For  which  I  am  called  upon  to  die.  First  and  fore- 
most it  is  my  opinion,  or  the  opinion  of  an  anarchist,  that  government  is  des- 
potism; government  is  an  organization  of  oppression,  and  law,  statute  law 
is  its  agent.  Anarchy  is  anti- government,  anti-rulers,  anti-dictators,  anti- 
bosses  and  drivers.  Anarchy  is  the  negation  of  force;  the  elimination  of 
all  authority  in  social  affairs;  it  is  the  denial  of  the  right  of  domination  of 
one  man  over  another.  It  is  the  diffusion  of  rights,  of  power,  of  duties, 
equally  and  fi'eely  among  all  the  people. 

"  But  anarchy,  like  many  other  words,  is  defined  in  Webster's  dic- 
tionary as  having  two  meanings.  In  one  place  it  is  defined  to  mean, 
*  without  rulers  or  governors.'  In  another  place  it  is  defined  to  mean,  *  dis- 
order and  confusion.'  This  latter  meaning  is  what  we  call  *  capitalistic 
anarchy,'  such  as  is  now  witnessed  in  all  portions  of  the  world  and  especi- 
ally in  this  court-room;  the  former,  which  means  without  rulers,  is  what 
we  denominate  communistic  anarchy,  which  will  be  ushered  in  with  the 
social  revolution. 

"  Socialism  is  a  term  which  covers  the  whole  range  of  human  progress 
and  advancement.  Socialism  is  defined  by  Webster — I  think  I  *have  a 
right  to  speak  of  this  matter,  because  I  am  tried  here  as  a  socialist.  I  am 
coiidonieiid  as  a  socialist,  and  it  has  been  of  socialism  that  Grinnell  and 
these  men  had  so  much  to  say,  and  I  think  it  right  to  speak  before  the 
country,  and  be  heard  in  my  own  behalf,  at  least.  If  you  are  going  to  put 
me  to  death,  then  let  the  people  know  what  it  is  for.  Socialism  is  defined 
by  Webster  as  '  A  theory  of  society  which  advocates  a  more  precise,  more 
orderly,  and  more  harmonious  arrangement  of  the  social  relations  of  man- 
kind that  has  hitherto  prevailed.'  Therefore  everything  in  the  line  of 
progi'ess,  in  civilization  in  fact,  is  socialistic.  There  are  two  distinct 
phases  of  socialism  in  the  labor  movement  throughout  the  world  to-day. 
One  is  known  as  anarchism,  without  political  government  or  authority,  the 
other  is  known  as  state  socialism  or  paternalism,  or  governmental  control 
of  everything.  The  state  socialist  seeks  to  ameliorate  and  emancipate  the 
wage  laborers  by  means  of  law,  by  legislative  enactments.  The  state  soc- 
ialist] s  demand  the  right  to  choose  their  own  rulers.  Anarchists  would 
have  neither  rulers  nor  law-makers  of  any  kind.  The  anarchists  seek  the 
same  ends  by  the  abrogation  of  law,  by  the  abolition  of  all  government, 


94  '  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANARCHISM. 

leaving  the  people  free  to  unite  or  disunite  as  fancy  or  interest  may  dictate; 
coercing  no  one,  driving  no  party. 

"Now,  sir,  we  are  supported  in  this  position  by  a  very  distinguished 
man  indeed,  no  less  a  man  than  Buckle,  the  author  of  '  The  History  of 
Civilization.'  He  states  that  there  have  been  two  opposing  elements  to  the 
progress  of  civilization  of  man.  The  first  of  these  two  is  the  church,  which 
commands  what  a  man  shall  believe.  And  the  other  is  the  state,  which 
commands  him  what  to  do.  Buckle  says  that  the  only  good  laws  passed 
in  the  last  three  or  four  hundred  years  have  been  laws  that  repealed  other 
laws.  That  is  the  view  exactly  of  anarchists.  Our  belief  is  that  all  these 
laws  should  be  repealed,  and  that  is  the  only  good  legislation  that  could 
possibly  take  place. 

"  Now,  law  is  license,  and  consequently  despotic.  A  legal  enactment 
is  simply  something  which  authorizes  somebody  to  do  something  for  some- 
body else  that  he  could  not  do  were  it  not  for  the  statute.  Now 
then  the  statute  is  the  divestment  and  the  denial  of  the  right  of 
another,  and  we  hold  that  to.bo  wrong;  we  consider  that  the  invasion  of  a 
man's  natural  right.  Mark  you,  we  do  not  object  to  all  laws:  The  law 
which  is  in  accordance  with  nature  is  good.  The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  when  it  guarantees  me  the  right  of  free  speech,  a  free  press, 
of  unmolested  assemblage,  and  the  right  of  self-defense,  why — your 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  good,  because  it  sanctions  it.  Why  ? 
Because  it  is  in  conformity  with  natural  law.  It  don't  require  any  statute 
law  to  provide  such  a  safeguard  as  that.  That  is  inalienable,  and  it  is  a 
natural  right,  inherited  by  the  very  fact  of  my  existence,  and  the  mere  fact 
that  it  is  embraced  in  the  Constitution  does  not  make  it  any  more  sacred 
at  all.  On  the  contrary  it  shows  how  foolish  it  is  to  do  by  constitution 
that  which  kind  mother  nature  has  already  freely  and  graciously  done  for 
us.  The  more  we  are  governed  the  less  we  are  free.  I  do  not  believe 
your  honor  will  deny  that. 

"  The  law-abiding  citizen — especially  if  he  is  called  upon  to  do  some- 
thing, you  understand,  under  a  law  that  enslaves  him,  is  an  uncom- 
plaining slave  to  the  power  that  governs  him.  Imagine  a  chattel  slave 
down  south  .who  was  law-abiding,  who  was  obedient;  what  does  that 
mean?  That  means  he  did  not  have  any  objections;  he  did  not  have 
anything  to  say  against  the  law  that  makes  him  another  man's  slave. 
Now,  the  workingman  to-day  in  this  country  who  says  nothing,  who  makes 
no  objection  to  any  of  these  enactments,  with  no  protest  at  all  against 
these  infamous  things  that  are  practiced  by  legislation,  that  workingman 
is  a  law-abiding,  obedient  workingman.  He  is  a  nice,  quiet,  peaceful, 
genteel  citizen. 

"Anarchists  are  not  that. kind.  We  object  to  those  laws.  Whether 
the  government  consists  of  one  over  the  million,  or  a  million  over  one,  an 
anarchist  is  opposed  to  the  rule  of  majorities  as  well  as  minorities.  If  a 
man  has  a  right,  he  has  that  right,  whether  that  right  is  denied  by  a  million 
or  by  one.  Right  is  right,  and  the  majority  that  sets  itself  up  to  dic- 
tate to  minorities,  they  simply  transform  themselves  into  tyrants,  they 
become  Usurpers;  they  deny  the  natural  right  of  their  fellow  men.  Now, 
sir,  this  will  put  an  end  to  the  law  factory  business.     What  would  become- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANAKCHI8M.  95 

of  your  law-makers?  Why  a  human  law-maker,  in  my  humble  judgment, 
is  a  human  humbug.  Yes,  sir,  and  I  believe  that  these  law-factories  that 
we  have  throughout  the  country,  the  legislatures  of  our  states  and  the 
Union,  where  they  manufacture  laws  just  as  we  go  to  a  factory  to  manu- 
factui'e  a  pair  of  boots — why,  your  honor,  the  same  pair  of  boots  won't  fit 
every  man;  how  can  you  make  a  law  that  will  apply  to  the  individnal  cases 
of  each  one  '■ 

"  Now,  your  honor,  I  suppose  that  you  would  hold,  like  they  did  in 
the  days  of  old — I  don't  know  whether  you  will  or  not,  but  there  are  some 
men  who  would  hold  that  a  man  who  would  adhere  to  these  kind  of  opin- 
ions ought  to  die.  That  this  world  has  got  no  use  for  him.  Well,  that 
remains  to  be  seen. 

''  The  natural  and  the  imprescriptible  right  of  all  is  the  right  of  each 
to  control  oneself.  Anarchy  is  a  free  society  where  there  is  no  concen- 
trated or  centralized  power,  no  state,  no  king,  no  em*peror,  no  ruler,  no 
president,  no  magistrate,  no  potentate  of  any  character  whatever.  Law  is 
the  enslaving  power  of  man.  Blackstone  defines  the  law  to  be  a  rule  of 
action.  I  believe  that  is  it.  Colonel  Foster,  I  would  like  to  ask  your 
opinion  if  that  quotation  is  correct  ?  Blackstone  describes  the  law  to  be  a  rule 
of  action,  prescribing  what  is  righ"  and  prohibiting  what  is  wrong.  Now, 
very  true.  Anarchists  hold  that  it  Is  wrong  for  one  person  to  prescribe 
what  is  the  right  action  for  another  person,  and  then  compel  that  person  to 
obey  that  rule.  Therefore,  right  action  consists  in  each  person  attending 
to  his  business  and  allowing  everybody  else  to  do  likewise. 

"  Whoever  prescribes  a  rule  of  action  for  another  to  obey  is  a  tyrant, 
usurper,  and  an  enemy  of  liberty.  This  is  precisely  what  every  statute  does. 
Anarchy  is  the  natural  law,  instead  of  the  man-made  statute,  and  gives 
men  leaders  in  the  place  of  drivers  and  bosses.  All  political  law,  statute 
and  common,  gets  its  right  to  operate  from  the  statute;  therefore  all 
political  law  is  statute  law.  A  statute  law  is  a  written  scheme  by  which 
cunning  takes  advantage  of  the  unsuspecting,  and  provides  the  induce- 
ment to  do  so,  and  protects  the  one  who  does  it.  In  other  words,  a 
statute  is  the  science  of  rascality,  or  the  law  of  usurpation.  If  a  few 
sharks  rob  mankind  of  all  the  earth,  turn  them  all  out  of  house  and  home, 
make  them  ragged  slaves  and  beggars,  and  freeze  and  starve  them  to  death, 
still  they  are  expected  to  obey  the  statute  because  it  is  sacred.  This 
ridiculous  nonsense  that  human  laws  are  sacred,  and  that  if  they  are  not 
respected  and  continued  we  cannot  prosper,  is  the  stupidest  and  most 
oriminal  nightmare  of  the  age.  Statutes  are  the  last  and  greatest  curse 
of  man,  and  when  destroyed  the  world  will  be  free.  The  statute  book  is 
a  book  of  laws  by  which  one  class  of  people  can  safely  trespass  upon  the 
rights  of  another.  Every  statute  law  is  always  used  to  oppose  some 
natural  law,  or  to  sustain  some  other  equally  vicious  statute.  The  statute 
is  the  great  science  of  rascality  by  which  alone  the  few  trample  upon  and 
enslave  the  many.  There  are  natural  laws  provided  for  every  want  of 
man.  Natural  laws  are  self-operating.  They  punish  all  who  violate 
them,  and  reward  all  who  obey  them.  They  cannot  be  repealed,  amended, 
dodged  or  bribed,  and  it  costs  neither  time,  money  nor  attention  to  apply 
them.    It  is  time  to  stop  legislating  against  tnem.    We  want  to  obey  laws, 


96  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

) 

not  men,  nor  the  tricks  of  men.  Statutes  are  human  tricks.  The  law — 
the  statute  law — is  the  coward's  weapon,  the  tool  of  the  thief,  and  more — 
the  shield  and  buckler  of  every  gigantic  villany,  and  frightful  parent  of 
all  crimes.  Every  great  robbery  that  was  ever  perpetrated  upon  a  people 
lias  been  by  virtue  of  and  in  the  name  of  law.  By  this  tool  of  thieves  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  who  inhabit  our  planet  have  been  robbed  of 
their  equal  right  to  the  use  of  the  soil  and  of  all  other  natural  opportu- 
nities. In  the  name  of  this  monster  (statute  law)  large  sections  of  our 
race  have  been  bought  and  sold  as  chattels;  by  it  the  vast  majority  of  the 
human  race  are  to-day  held  in  the  industrial  bondage  of  wage-slavery, 
and  in  its  name  our  fair  earth  has  been  times  without  number  deluged  in 
human  blood.  By  the  instrumentality  of  this  tool,  cowards  and  thieves, 
tyrants  and  usurpers,  are  robbing  their  fellows  of  their  substance,  despoil- 
ing them  of  their  natural  rights,  and  depriving  them  of  liberty.  Man's 
legal  rights  are  everywhere  in  collision  with  man's  natural  rights;  hence 
the  deep-rooted  and  wide-spread  unrest  of  modern  civilization.  The  only 
sacred  right  of  property  is  the  natural  right  of  the  workingman  to  the 
product,  which  is  the  creation  of  his  labor.  The  legal  right  of  the  capi- 
talist to  rent  and  interest  and  profit  is  the  absolute  denial  of  the  natural 
right  of  labor.  Free  access  to  the  means  of  production  is  the  natural 
right  to  labor.  Free  access  to  the  means  of  production  is  the  natural 
right  of  every  man  able  and  willing  to  work.  It  is  the  legal  right  of  the 
capitalist  to  refuse  such  access  to  labor,  and  to  take  from  the  laborer 
all  the  wealth  he  creates  over  and  above  a  bare  subsistence  for  allowing 
him  the  privilege  of  working. 

"  A  laborer  has  the  natural  right  to  life,  and  as  life  is  impossible  with- 
out the  means  of  production  the  equal  right  to  life  involves  an  equal 
right  to  the  means  of  production.  The  legal  right  of  the  capitalist  is 
virtually  the  assertion  that  one  man  has  a  greater  right  to  life  than 
another  man,  since  it  denies  the  equality  of  natural  conditions.  Our 
present  social  system,  therefore,  is  based  upon  the  legalization  of  robbery, 
slavery  and  murder.  The  laborer  who  does  not  get  more  than  a  bare  sub- 
sistence as  the  fruit  of  his  toil  is  robbed.  The  laborer  who  is  forced  to 
beg  for  work,  and  has  to  accept  it  on  any  terms  or  starve,  is  a  slave.  The 
laborer  who,  being  unable  to  get  work,  but  who  in  turn  has  too  much 
manhood  to  beg,  steal  or  become  a  pauper,  is  by  the  refined  process  of 
slow  starvation  murdered. 

"  Laws — just  laws — natural  laws — are  not  made,  they  are  discovered. 
Law  enancting  is  an  insult  to  divine  intelligence,  and  law  enforcing  is  the 
impeachment  of  God's  integrity  and  His  power.  I  make,  as  an  anarchist, 
this  declaration  for  the  benefit  of  our  christian  ministry,  who,  while  pro- 
fessing loyalty  for  God's  laws,  never  forget  to  pray  and  work  for  the 
supremacy  of  man's  laws  and  man's  government.  Those  pious  frauds 
who  profess  their  faith  in  the  '  power '  of  God,  while  they  employ  the 
police,  the  militia  and  other  armed  hirelings  to  enforce  their  man-made  laws 
and  maintain  their  'power'  over  their  fellow  men.  Oh,  consistency, 
indeed  thou  art  a  jewel!  These  hypocrites,  who  always  did,  and  do  to- 
day, employ  brute  force  to  compel  their  fellow  men  to  obey  and  serve 
them,  while  they  whine  and  snivel  behind  their  sanctimonious  masks  about 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANAECHISM.  97 

their  '  love  for  man  and  tlie  power  of  God.'     I  hope  some  of  them  will 
preach  in  their  pulpits  next  Sunday  morning  on  this  topic. 

""In  the  opinion  of  an  anarchist,  the  sum  total  of  human  ills  is 
expressed  in  one  word — authority.  The  economic  regulates  and  controls 
the  social  status  of  man;  the  mode  and  manner  of  procuring  our  liveli- 
hood affects  oui-  whole  life;  the  all-pervading  cause  is  economic,  not 
political;  moral  or  religious;  and  social  institutions  of  every  kind  and  de- 
gree result  from,  grow  out  of,  and  are  created  by  the  economic  or  indus- 
trial regulations  of  society.  Every  human  being,  consciously  or  imcon- 
sciously,  is  affected  and  controlled  by  it  in  what  they  think,  or  say,  or  do. 
There  is  no  escape,  no  evasion  from  its  consequences.  It  is  logic.  It  is 
cause  and  effect.  Evil  exists  on  every  hand;  the  well-disposed,  philan- 
thropic, and  generous,  and  the  good,  seek  relief  from  these  evil  influences 
by  moral  suasion,  by  self-denial,  by  religion,  by  politics,  etc.,  etc.,  but  in 
vain,  in  vain!  The  evils  remain,  and  not  only  remain,  but  grow  worse  and 
worse.  Why,  if  the  fountain  is  corrupt,  can  the  stream  be  pure  ?  If  the 
cause  remains,  must  not  the  effects  follow  ?  Jails,  judges  and  executioners, 
police,  armies  and  navies,  pestilence,  misery  and  ignorance  and  debauch- 
ery, and  evils  of  all  kinds  of  high  and  low  degree,  all  flow  from  one 
fountain.  That  flowing  fountain  of  human  woe  is  the  economic  or  indus- 
trial subjection  and  enslavement  of  man  to  man.  Every  human  ill  is 
produced  by  the  denial  or  violation  of  man's  natural  rights,  or  by  the 
neglect  or  refusal  of  man  to  conform  his  life  to  the  requirement^  of. 
nature.  Wickedness,  wretchedness,  ignorance,  vice,  crime,  poverty,  are 
the  penalties  which-  nature  inflicts  upon  her  disobedient  children.  The 
natural  man  is  a  happy  man.  He  is  virtuous  and  rich;  truly  so.  Who- 
ever violates  the  right  of  another,  sooner  or  later  punishes  himself. 
Nature  is  inexorable.  From  her  penalty  there  is  no  escape.  But  in  a  court 
of  law — of  so-called  'justice' — if  you  are  a  member  of  the  Citizen's 
Association,  or  if  you  have  a  big  bank  account,  in  other  words,  if  you  are 
a  member  of  the  propertied  class,  you  crawl  out  of  anything  you  want  to, 
for  law  is  for  sale;  that  is  to  say,  whoever  can  pui'chase  the  lawyers,  stock 
the  jury  and  bribe  the  court  can  win.  There  is  only  one  law  for  the 
poor,  to  wit:   Obey  the  rich. 

"The  existing  economic  system  has  placed  on  the  markets  for  sale 
man's  natural  rights.  What  are  these  rights  ?  Well,  among  the  many  I 
will  enumerate  one  or  two.  The  right  to  live,  for  instance,  is  an  inaliena- 
ble right.  So  too,  is  the  right  to  liberty  and  the  pui'suit  of  happiness. 
Now,  how  can  I  possess  these  rights  and  enjoy  them,  when  the  very  con- 
veniences of  life  and  tjie  means  for  their  procurement  are  owned  by  and 
belong  to  another  ? 

"Shakespeare  makes  Shylock  say  at  the  bar  of  the  Venetian  court, 
*  You  do  take  my  life  when  you  take  the  means  whereby  I  live,'  Now,  the 
means  of  life  are  monopolized;  the  necessary  means  for  the  existence  of 
all  has  been  appropriated  and  monopolized  by  a  few.  The  land,  the  im- 
plements of  production  and  communication,  the  resources  of  life,  are  now 
held  as  private  property,  and  its  owners  exact  tribute  from  the  property- 
less.  In  this  way  the  privileged  class  become  millionaires.  They  deny 
the  equal  right  of  every  one  to  freely  use  our  natural  inheritance,   the 


98  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

earth.  The  denial  of  that  right  is  death  to  whom  it  is  denied.  The  right 
to  live  is  made  a  privilege  by  law,  granted  by  law,  which  is  granted  or 
denied  by  the  possessor  to  the  disposessed.  Human  righto  are  for  sale,  'If 
thou  wilt  not  work,  neither  shaft  thou  eat,'  says  the  scripture.  This  finds 
immunity,  however,  among  those  who  "can  pay  for  it.  Those  who  work 
eat  not;  and  those  who  eat  worlr  not.  They  do  not  have  to;  they  hire 
some  hungry,  poor  devil  to  do  the  work  for  them.  The  hired  man — the 
hired  man  whom  the  capitalist  press  gloats  on  the  idea  of,  and  whom  the 
pious  frauds  declare  is  Uie  dispensation  of  divine  providence,  whom  we 
will  always  have  among  us  is  a  social  fungus,  the  outgrowth  of  a  rotten, 
sorrupt  industrial  regime. 

"In  conclusion  I  will  say,  compulsion  is  slavery,  and  those  disinher- 
jited  of  their  natural  rights  must  hire  out  and  serve  and  obey  the  oppress- 
ing class  or  starve.  There  is  no  other  alternative.  Some  things  are 
priceless,  chief  among  which  are  life  and  liberty.  A  freeman  is  not  for  sale 
or  for  hire. 

"You  accuse  the  anarchists  of  using  or  advising  the  use  of  force;  it 
is  false.  'Out  of  your  own  mouth  you  stand  condemned.'  The  present 
existing  state  of  society  is  based  upon  and  maintained  by  and' perpetuated 
by  force.  This  capitalistic  system  that  we  have  to-day  would  not  exist 
twenty- four  hours  if  it  were  not  held  together  by  the  bayonets  and  the 
clubs  of  the  militia  and  police.  No,  sir,  it  would  not !  Now,  sir,  we  object 
to  this.  We  protest  against  it.  But  you  accuse  us,  or  the  prosecution 
here  accuses  us,  of  that  very  thing  which  they  themselves  are  guilty  of. 
It  is  the  old,  old  _story  of  ^sop's  fable,  the  lamb  standing  in  the  water 
and  the  wolf  above  him;  he  looks  up;  the  water  has  run  down,  the  wolf 
stands  above  him;  he  looks  down  toward  the  lamb,  and  says  he,  'Ho, 
there!  you  are  making  the  water  muddy.'  The  lamb  observes,  'My 
friend,  I  am  below  you  in  the  stream.'  'That  don't  matter;  you  are  my 
meat,  anyhow.'  And  he  goes  for  him  and  eats  him  up.  That  is  just  the 
way  of  the  capitalist  toward  the  anarchist.  You  are  doing  the  veiy  thing 
you  accuse  us  of,  and  against  which  we  protest.  Now  any  institution  that 
is  based  upon  force  is  self -condemned;  it  does  not  need  any  argument,  in 
my  opinion,  to  show  it. 

"The  political  economy  that  prevails  was  written  to  justify  the  taking 
of  somxething  for  nothing;  it  was  written  to  hide  the  blushes  of  the  rich 
when  they  look  into  the  faces  of  the  poor.  These  are  they  who  brand 
anarchy  as  a  compound  of  'incendiarism,  robbery  and  murder;'  these  are 
they  who  despoil  the  people;  they  love  power  and  hate  equality;  they  who 
dominate,  degrade  and  exploit  their  fellow  men,  they  who  employ  brute 
force,  violence  and  wholesale  murder,  to  perpetuate  and  maintain  their 
privileges. 

"This  labor  question  is  not  a  question  of  emotion;  the  labor  question 
is  not  a  question  of  sentiment;  it  is  not  a  religious  matter;  it  is  not  a  polit- 
ical problem ;  no,  sir,  it  is  a  stern  economic  fact,  a  stubborn  and  immova- 
ble fact.  It  has,  it  is  true,  its  emotional  phase;  it  has  its  sentimental, 
religious,  political  aspects,  but  the  sum  total  of  this  question  is  the  bread 
and  butter  question,  the  how  and  wherefore  we  will  live  and  earn  our 
daily  bread.     And  until  the  right  of  existence  is  settled  upon  the  basis  of 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  99 

• 

equal  and  perfect  liberty  to  all,  there  will  never  be  peace  among  men. 
This  is  the  labor  movement.  It  has  a  scientific  basis.  It  is  founded  upon 
fact. 

"Labor  is  a  commodity  and  wages  is  the  price  paid  for  it.  The 
owner  of  this  commodity — of  labor — sells  it,  that  is  himself,  to  the  owner 
of  capital  in  order  to  live.  Labor  is  the  expression  of  energy,  the  power 
of  the  laborer's  life.  This  energy  of  power  he  must  sell  to  another  person 
in  order  to  live.  It  is  his  only  means  of  existence.  He  works  to  live,  but 
his  work  is  not  simply  a  part  of  his  life;  it  is  the  sacrifice  of  it.  His  labor 
is  a  commodity  which  under  the  guise  of  free  labor,  he  is  forced  by  neces- 
sity to  hand  over  to  another  party.  The  reward  of  the  wage  laborer's 
activity  is  not  the  product  of  his  labor — far  from  it.  The  silk  he  weaves, 
the  palace  he  builds,  the  ores  he  digs  from  out  the  mines — ar^  not  for  him 
— oh,  no.  The  only  thing  he  produces  for  himself  is  his  wage,  and  the 
silk,  the  ores  and  the  palace  which  he  has  built  are  simply  transformed  for 
him  into  a  certain  kind  of  means  of  existence,  namely,  h  cotton  shirt,  a 
few  pennies,  and  the  mere  tenantcy  of  a  lodging-house,  in  other  words, 
his  wages  represent  the  bare  necessities  of  his  existence,  t^nd  the  unpaid- 
for  or  'surplus'  portion  of  his  labor  product  constitutes  the  vast  super- 
abundant wealth  of  the  non-producing  or  capitalise  class.  That  is 
the  capitalist  system.  It  is  the  capitalist  system  that  creates  these 
classes,  and  it  is  these  classes  that  produces  this  conilict.  This  conflict 
intensifies  as  the  power  of  the  privileged  classes  over  the  non- possessing 
or  propertyless  classess  increases  and  intensifies,  and  T.his  power  increases 
as  the  idle  few  become  richer  and  the  producing  many  become  poorer,  and 
this  produces  what  is  called  the  labor  movement.  Wealth  is  power,  pov- 
erty is  weakness.  If  I  had  time  I  might  answer  some  suggestions  that 
probably  arise  in  the  minds  of  some  persons  not  familiar  with  this  ques- 
tion. I  imagine  I  hear  your  honor  say,  'Why,  labor  is  free.  This  is  a 
free  country.'  Now,  we  had  in  the  southern  states  for  nearly  a  century  a 
form  of  labor  known  as  chattel  slave  labor.  That  has  been  abolished,  and 
I  hear  you  say  that  labor  is  free;  that  the  war  has  resulted  in  establishing 
free  labor  all  over  America.  Is  this  true  ?  Look  at  it.  The  chattel  slave 
of  the  i)ast — the  wage  slave  of  to-day;  what  is  the  difference?  The  mas- 
ter selected  under  chattel  slavery  his  own  slaves.  Under  the  wage  slavery 
system  the  wage  slave  selects  his  master. 

"Formerly  the  master  selected  the  slave;  to-day  the  slave  selects  his 
master  and  he  has  got  to  find  one  or  else  he  is  carried  down  here  to  my  friend, 
the  goaler,  and  occupy  a  cell  along  side  of  myself.  He  is  compelled  to  find 
one.  So  the  change  of  the  industrial  system,  in  the  language  of  Jefferson 
Davis,  ex-president  of  the  southern  confederacy,  in  an  interview  with  the 
New  York  Herald  upon  the  question  of  the  chattel  slave  system  of  the 
south  and  that  of  the  so-called  '  free  laborer,'  and  their  wages — Jefferson 
Davis  has  stated  positively  that  the  change  was  a  decided  benefit  to  the 
former  chattel  slave  owners  who  would  not  exchange  the  new  system  of 
wage  labor  at  all  for  chattel  labor,  because  now  the  dead  had  to  bury  them- 
selves and  the  sick  take  care  of  themselves,  and  now  they  don't  have  to 
employ  overseers  to  look  after  them.  They  give  them  a  task  to  do-  a  cer- 
tain amount  to  do.     They  say:     'Now,  here,  perform  this  piece  of  work 


100  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

in  a  certain  length  of  time,'  and  if  you  don't  (under  the  wage  system,  says 
Mr.  Davis),  why,  when  you  come  around  for  your  pay  next  Saturday,  you 
simply  find  in  the  envelope  containing  your  money,  a  note  which 
informs  you  of  the  fact  that  you  have  been  discharged.  Now,  Jefferson 
Davis  admitted  in  his  statement  that  the  leather  thong  dipped  in  salt 
brine,  for  the  chattel  slave,  had  been  exchanged  under  the  wage  slave 
system  for  the  lash  of  hunger,  an  empty  stomach  and  the  ragged  back  of 
the  wage-slave,  who,  according  to  the  census  of  the  United  States 
for  1880,  constitute  more  than  nine-tenths  of  our  entire  population.  But 
you  say  the  wage  slave  has  advantage  over  the  chattel  slave.  The  chattel 
slave  couldn't  get  away  fi'om  it.  Well,  if  we  had  the  statistics,  I  believe 
it  could  be  shown  that  as  many  chattel  slaves  escaped  fi'om  bondage  with 
the  bloodhounds  of  their  masters  after  them  as  they  tracked  their  way 
over  the  snow-beaten  rocks  of  Canada,  and  via  the  underground  grapevine 
road — I  believe  the  statistics  would  show  to-day  that  as  many  chattel 
slaves  escaped  from  their  bondage  under  that  system  as  could,  and  as  many 
as  do  escape  to-day  from  wage  bondage  into  capitalistic  liberty.  I  am 
a  socialist,  I  am  one  of  those,  although  myself  a  wage  slave,  who 
holds  that  it  is  wrong,  wrong  to  myself,  wrong  to  my  neighbor  and  unjust 
to  my  fellowmen,  for  me,  wage  slave  that  I  am,  to  undertake  to  make 
my  escape  from  wage  slavery  by  becoming  a  master.  I  refuse  to  do  it,  I 
refuse  equally  to  be  a  slave  or  the  owner  of  slaves.  Had  I  chosen  another 
path  in  life,  I  might  be  upon  the  avenue  of  the  city  of  Chicago  to-day, 
surrounded  in  my  beautiful  home  with  luxury  and  ease  and  slaves  to  do 
my  bidding.  But  I  chose  the  other  road,  and  instead  I  stand  here  to-day 
upon  the  scaffold.  Tnis  is  my  crime.  Before  high  heaven  this  and  this 
alone  is  my  crime.  I  have  been  false,  I  have  been  untrue,  and  I  am  a 
traitor  to  the  infamies  that  exist  to-day  in  capitalistic  society.  If  this  is 
a  crime  in  your  opinion  I  plead  guilty  to  it.  Now,  be  patient  with  me;  I 
have  been  with  you,  or  rather,  I  have  been  patient  with  this  trial.  Follow 
me,  if  you  please,  and  look  at  the  impressions  of  this  capitalistic  system  of 
industry.  Every  new  machine  that  comes  into  existence  comes  there  as  a 
competitor  with  the  man  of  labor.  Every  machine  under  the  capitalistic 
system  that  is  introduced  into  industrial  affairs  comes  as  a  competitor,  as 
a  drag  and  menace  and  a  prey  to  the  very  existence  of  those  who  have  to 
sell  their  labor  in  order  to  earn  their  bread.  The  man  is  turned  out  to 
starve  and  whole  occupations  and  pursuits  are  revolutionized  and  com- 
j)letely  destroyed  by  the  introduction  of  machinery,  in  a  day,  in  an  hour  as 
it  were.  I  have  known  it  to  be  the  case  in  the  history  of  my  own  life — 
and  I  am  yet  a  young  man — that  whole  pursuits  and  occupations  have 
been  wiped  out  or  revolutionized  by  the  invention  of  machinery. 

"  What  becomes  of  these  people ?  Where  are  they?  Tens  of  thous- 
ands are  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  they  become  competitors  of  other 
laborers  and  are  made  to  reduce  wages  and  increase  the  work  hours. 
Many  of  them  are  candidates  for  the  gibbet,  they  are  candidates  for  your 
prison  cells.  Buld  more  penitentiaries ;  erect  new  scaffolds,  for  these  men 
are  upon  the  highway  of  crime,  of  misery,  of  death.  Your  honor,  there 
never  was  an  effect  without  a  cause.     The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   AKAKCEklM.  101 

Socialists  are  r:ot  those  who  blindly  close  their  eyes  and  refuse  to  look, . 
and  who  refuse  to  hear,  but  having  eyes  to  see,  they  see,  and  having  ears  to 
hear,  they  hear.     Look  at  this  capitalistic  system ;  look  at  its  operation  upon 
the  small  dealers,  the  middle  class.     Bradstreefs  Commercial  Statistics 
tells  us  in  last  year  s  report  that  there  were   11,000  small  businessmen 
financially  destroyed  the  past  twelve  months.     What  became  of  those  peo- 
ple ?     Where  are  they,  and  why  have  they  been  wiped  out  ?     Has  there 
been  any  less  wealth  ?     No ;  that  which  they  had  possessed  has  simply  trans- 
ferred itself  into  the  hands  of  some  other  person.     Who  is  that  other  ?     It 
is  he  who  has  greater  capitalistic  facilities.     It  is  the  monopolist,  the  man 
who  can  run  comers,  who  can  create  rings  and  squeeze  these  men  to  death 
and  wipe  them  out  like  dead  flies  from  the  table  into  his  monopolistic 
basket.     The  middle  classes,  destroyed  in  this  manner,  join  the  ranks  of  the 
proletariat.     They  bocome  what?     They  seek  out  the  factory  gate,  they 
seek  in  the  various  occupations  of  wage  labor  for  employment.     What  is 
the  result  ?     Then  there  are  more  men  upon  the  market.     This  increases 
the  number  of  those  who  are  applying  for  employment.    What  then  ?  This 
intensifies  the  competition, which  in  turn  creates. greater  monopolists,  and 
with  it  wages  go  down  until  the  starvation  point  is  reached,  and  then  what  ? 
"  Socialism  comes  to  the  people  and  asks  them  to  look  into  this  thing, 
to  discuss  it,  to  reason,    to  examine  it,  to  investigate  it,  to  know  the  facts, 
because  it  is  by  this,  and  this  alone,  violence  will  be  prevented  and  blood- 
shed will  be  avoided,  because,  as  my  friend  here  has   said,  men  in  their 
blind  rage,  in  their  ignorance,  not  knowing  what  ails  them,  knowing  that 
they  are  hungry,  that  they  are  miserable  and  destitute,  strike  blindly,  and 
do  as  they  did  with  Maxwell  here,  and  fight  the  labor-saving  machinery. 
Imagine  such  an  absurd  thing,  and  yet  the  capitalistic  press  has  taken 
great  pains  to  say  that  socialists  do  these  things;  that  we  fight  machinery; 
that  we  fight  j^overty.     Why,  sir,  it  is  an  absui-dity ;  it  is  ridiculous ;  it  is 
prex>osterous.     No  man  ever  heard  an  utterance  from  the  mouth  of  a 
socialist  to  advise  anything  of  the  kind.     They  know  to  the  contrary.     W^e 
don't  fight  machinery;  we  don't  oppose  these  things.     It  is  only  the  man- 
ner and  methods  of  employing  it  that  we  object  to.     That  is  all.     It  is 
the  manipulation  of  these  things  in  the  interests  of  a  few;  it  is  the  monopo- 
lization of  them  that  we  object  to.     W^e  desire  that  all  the  forces  of  nature, 
all  the  forces  of  society,  of  the  gigantic  strength  which  has  resulted  fi'om. 
the  combined  intellect  and  labor  of  the  ages  of  the  past  shall  be  turned 
over  to  man,  and  made  his  servant,  his  obedient  slave  forever.     This  is  the 
object  of  socialism.     It  asks  no  one  to   give   up   anything.     It   seeks  no 
harm  to  anybody.     But,  when  we  witness  this  condition  of  things,  when 
we  see  little  children  huddling  around  the  factory  gates,  the  poor  little 
things  whose  bones  are  not  yet  hard;  when  we  see  them    clutched  from 
the  hearthstone,  taken  from  the  family  altar,    and  carried  to  the  bas- 
tiles    of   labor   and   their   little   bones    ground   up   into   gold    dust    to 
bedeck  the  form  of  some  aristocratic  Jezebel,  then  it  stirs  me  and  I  speak 
out.     We  plead  for  the  little  ones:  we  plead  for  the  helpless;  we  plead 
for  the   oppressed,   we  seek   redress   for   those   who    are   wronged;    we 
seek   knowledge    and    intelligence   for    the   ignorant;    we   seek   liberty 
for   the   slave;    socialism   secures   the    welfare   of    every   human   being. 


lOii'^   i   t^'^i    ^S'     '    ■^l::     T^B  PQIX>OSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM. 

"  The  evil  effects  of  our  existing  social  system  naturally  flow  from 
the  established  social  relations,  which  are  founded  upon  the  economic 
subjection  and  dependence  of  the  man  of  labor  to  the  monopolizer  of  the 
means  of  labor — the  resources  of  life.  All  the  ills  that  afflict  society- 
social  miseries,  mental  degradations,  political  dependence — all  result  from 
the  economic  subjection  and  dependence  of  the  man  of  labor  upon  the 
monopolizer  of  the  means  of  existence;  and  as  long  as  ibhe  cause  remains 
the  effect  must  certainly  follow.  Seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  farms  of 
America  are  to-day  under  mortgage.  The  man  who  a  few  years  ago 
owned  the  soil  that  he  worked,  is  to-day  a  tenant  at  will.  A  mortgage  is 
placed  upon  his  soil,  and  when  he,  the  farmer  whose  hand  tickles  the 
earth  and  causes  it  to  blossom  as  the  rose  and  bring  forth  its  rich  fruits  for 
human  sustenance — even  while  this  man  is  asleep  the  interest  upon  the 
mortgage  continues.  It  grows  and  it  increases,  rendering  it  more  and 
more  difficult  for  him  to  get  along  or  make  his  living.  In  the  meantime 
the  railway  corporations  place  upon  the  traffic  all  that  the  market  will 
bear.  The  board  of  trade  sharks  run  their  corners  until — what?  Until 
it  occurs,  as  stated  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  about  three  months  ago,  that  a 
freight  train  of  corn  from  Iowa  consigned  to  a  commission  merchant  in 
Chicago,  had  to  be  sold  for  less  than  the  cost  of  freight.  The  freightage 
upon  that  com  was  three  dollars  more  than  the  corn  brought  in  the  mar- 
ket. So  it  is  with  the  tenant  farmers  of  America.  Your  honor,  we  do 
not  have  to  go  to  Ireland  to  find  the  evils  of  landlordism.  We  do  not 
have  to  cross  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  find  Lord  Leitrim's  rackrenters — land- 
lords who  evict  their  tenants.  We  have  them  all  around  us.  There  is 
Ireland  right  here  in  Chicago  and  everywhere  else  in  this  country.  Look 
at  Bridgeport  where  the  Irish  live!  Look!  Tenants  at  will,  huddled  to- 
gether as  State's  Attorney  Grinnell  calls  them,  like  rats;  living  as  they  do 
in  Dublin,  living  precisely  as  they  do  in  Limerick — taxed  to  death,  unable 
to  meet  the  extortions  of  the  landlord. 

"We  were  told  by  the  prosecution  that  law  was  on  trial;  that  govern- 
ment was  on  trial ;  that  anarchy  was  on  trial.  That  is  what  the  gentle- 
men on  the  other  side  stated  to  the  jury.  The  law  is  on  trial,  and 
government  is  on  trial.  Well,  up  to  near  the  conclusion  of  this  trial  we, 
the  defendants,  supposed  that  we  were  indicted  and  being  tried  for  mur- 
der. Now,  if  the  law  is  on  trial,  and  the  government  is  on  trial,  and 
anarchy  is  on  trial,  who  has  placed  it  upon  trial  ?  And  I  leave  it  to  the 
people  of  America  whether  the  prosecution  in  this  case  have  made  out  a 
case;  and  I  charge  it  here  now  frankly  that  in  order  to  bring  about  this 
conviction  the  prosecution,  the  representatives  of  the  state,  the  sw^orn  offi- 
cers of  the  law,  those  whose  obligation  it  is  to  the  people  to  obey  the  law 
and  preserve  order— I  charge  upon  them  a  willful,  a  malicious,  a  pur- 
posed violation  of  every  law  which  guarantees  every  right  to  every  Ameri- 
can citizen.  They  have  violated  fi'ee  speech.  In  the  prosecution  of  this 
case  they  have  violated  a  free  press.  They  have  violated  the  right  of 
public  assembly.  Yea,  they  have  even  violated  and  denounced  the  right 
of  self-defense.  I  charge  the  crime  home  to  them.  These  great  blood- 
bought  rights,  for  which  our  forefathers  spent  centuries  of  struggle,  they 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  108 

have  violated  and  betrayed  and  we,  who  defend  these  rights,  it  is 
attempted  to  run  like  rats  into  a  hole  by  the  prosecution  in  this 
case.  Why,  gentlemen,  law  is  upon  trid;  government  is  upon  trial, 
indeed.  Yea,  they  are  themselves  guilty  of  the  precise  thing  of  which 
they  accuse  me.  They  say  that  I  am  an  anarchist,  and  refuse  to  respect  the 
law.  'By  their  works  ye  shall  know  them,'  and  out  of  their  own  mouths 
they  stand  condemned.  They  are  the  real  anarchists  in  this  case,  while 
we  stimd  upon  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  have  violated  no 
law  of  this  country.  Neither  I  nor  my  colleagues  here  have  violated  any 
legal  right  of  American  citizens.  >Ve  stand  upon  the  right  of  free  speech, 
fi-ee  press,  of  public  assemblage,  unmolested  and  undistui'bed.  We  stand 
upon  the  constitutional  right  of  self-defense,  and  we  defy  the  prosecution 
to  rob  the  people  of  America  of  these  dearly  bought  rights.  But  the 
prosecution  imagines  that  they  have  triumphed  because  they  propose 
to  put  to  death  seven  men.  Seven  men  to  be  exterminated  in  violation  of 
law,  because  they  insist  upon  the  rights  guaranteed  them  by  the  constitu- 
tion. Seven  men  are  to  be  exterminatad  because  they  demand  the  right 
of  free  speech  and  t^xercise  it.  Seven  men  by  this  court  of  law  are  to  be 
put  to  death  because  they  claim  their  right  of  self-defense.  Do  you  think, 
gentlemen  of  the  prosecution,  that  you  will  have  settled  the  case  when 
you  are  carrying  my  lifeless  bones  to  the  potter's  field  ?  Do  you  think 
that  this  trial  will  be  settled  by  my  strangulation  and  that  of  my  col- 
leagues ?  I  tell  you  that  there  is  a  greater  verdict  yet  to  be  heard  from. 
The  American  people  will  have  something  to  say  about  this  attempt 
to  destroy  their  rights,  which  they  hold  sacred.  The  American  people 
will  have  something  to  say  as  to  whether  or  not  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  can  be  trampled  under  foot  at  the  dictation  of 
monopoly. 

^  ^  'F  »!t 

*'We  are  charged  with  being  the  enemies  of  'law  and  order,'  as 
breeders  of  strife  and  confusion.  Every  conceivable  bad  name  and  evil 
design  was  imputed  to  us  by  the  lovers  of  power  and  haters  of  freedom 
and  equality.  Even  the  workingmen  in  some  instances,  caught  the  infec- 
tion and  many  of  them  joined  in  the  capitalistic  hue  and  cry  against  the 
anarchists.  Being  satisfied  of  ourselves  that  our  purpose  was  a  just  one, 
we  worked  on  undismayed,  willing  to  labor  and  to  wait,  for  time  and 
events  to  justify  our  cause.  We  began  to  allude  to  ourselves  as  anarchists 
and  that  name  which  was  at  first  imputed  to  us  as  a  dishonor,  we  came  to 
cherish  and  defend  with  ])ride.  What's  in  a  name?  But  names  some- 
times express  ideas;  and  ideas  are  everything.  What,  then,  is  our  offense, 
being  anarchists  ?  The  word  anarchy  is  derived  from  the  two  Greek  words 
an,  signifying  no,  or  without,  and  arche,  government;  hence  anarchy 
means  no  government.  Consequently  anarchy  means  a  condition  of  society 
which  has  no  king,  emperor,  president  or  riiler  of  any  kind.  In  other 
words  ararchy  is  the  social  administration  of  all  affairs  by  the  people 
themselves;  that  is  to  say,  self-government,  individual  liberty.  Such  a 
condition  of  society  denies  the  right  of  majorities  to  rule  over  or  dictate  to 
minorities.  Though  every  person  in  the  world  agree  upon  a  certain  j^lan 
and  only  one  objection  thereto,   the  objector  would,   under  anarchy,   be 


104  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

respected  in  his  natural  right  to  go  his  own  way  ?  And  when  such  person 
is  thus  held  responsible  by  all  the  rest  for  the  violation  of  the  inherent 
right  of  any  one  how  th^n  can  injustice  flourish  or  right  triumph  ?  For 
the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  anarchy  substitutes  the  equal 
right  of  each  and  every  one.  The  natural  law  is  all  sufficient  for  every 
purpose,  every  desire  and  every  human  being.  The  scientist  then  becomes 
the  natural  leader,  and  is  accepted  as  the  only  authority  among  men. 
Whatever  can  be  demonstrated  will  by  self  interest  be  accepted,  otherwise 
rejected.  The  great  natural  law  of  power  derived  alone  from  association 
and  co-operation  will  of  necessity  and  from  selfishness  be  applied  by  the 
people  in  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth,  and  what  the  trades 
unions  and  labor  organizations  seek  now  to  do,  but  are  prevented  from 
doing  because  of  obstructions  and  coercions,  will  under  perfect  liberty — 
anarchy — come  easiest  to  hand.  Anarchy  is  the  extension  of  the  bounda- 
ries of  liberty  until  it  covers  the  whole  range  of  the  wants  and  aspirations 
of  man — not  men,  but  man. 

"Power  is  might,  and  might  always  makes  its  own  right.  Thus  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  might  makes  itself  right  whether  or  no.  Gov- 
ernment, therefere,  is  the  agency  or  power  by  which  some  person  or  per- 
sons govern  or  rule  other  persons,  and  the  inherent  right  to  govern  is  found 
wherever  the  power  or  might  to  do  so  is  manifest.  In  a  natural  state, 
intelligence  of  necessity  control  ignorance,  the  strong  the  weak,  the  good 
the  bad,  etc.  Only  when  the  natural  law  operates  is  this  true,  however. 
On  the  other  hand  when  the  statute  is  substituted  for  the  natural  law,  and 
government  holds  sway,  then,  and  only  then,  power  centers  itself  into  the 
hands  of  a  few,  who  dominate,  dictate,  rule,  degrade  and  enslave  the  many. 
The  broad  distinction  and  irreconcilable  conflict  between  wage  laborers 
and  capitalists,  between  those  who  buy  labor  or  sell  its  products,  and  the 
wage-worker  who  sells  his  labor  (himself)  in  order  to  live,  arises  from  the 
social  institution  called  government;  and  the  conflicting  interests,  the  total 
abolition  of  warring  classes,  and  the  end  of  domination  and  exploitation  of 
man  by  man  is  to  be  found  only  in  a  free  society,  where  all  and  each  are 
equally  free  to  unite  or  disunite,  as  interest  or  inclination  may  incline. 
The  anarchists  are  the  advance  guard  in  the  impending  social  revolution. 
They  have  discovered  the  cause  of  the  world-wide  discontent  which  is  felt 
but  net  yet  understood  by  the  toiling  millions  as  a  whole.  The  effort  now 
being  made  by  organized  and  unorganized  labor  in  all  countries  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  making  of  laws  which  they  are  forced  to  obey  will  lay  bare 
to  them  the  secret  source  of  their  enslavement  to  capital.  Capital  is  a 
thing — it  is  property.  Capital  is  the  stored  up,  accumulated  savings  of 
past  labor,  such  as  machinery,  houses,  food,  clothing,  all  the  means  of 
production  (both  natural  and  artificial)  of  transportation  and  communication 
— in  short  the  resources  of  life,  the  means  of  subsistence.  These  things 
are,  in  a  natural  state,  the  common  heritage  of  all  for  the  free  use  of  all, 
and  they  were  so  held  until  their  forcible  seizure  and  appropriation  by  a 
few.  Thus  the  common  heritage  of  all  seized  by  violence  and  fraud,  was 
afterwards  made  the  ])roperty — capital — of  the  usurpers,  who  erected  a 
government  and  enacted  lawr>  to  perpetuate  and  maintain  their  special 
privileges.     The  function,  the  only  function  of  capital  is  to  appropriate  or 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  105 

conliscate  the  labor  product  of  the  propertyless,  non-possessing  class,  the 
wage -workers.  The  origin  of  government  was  in  violence  and  murder. 
Government  disinherits  and  enslaves  the  governed.  Government  is  for 
slaves;  fi*ee  men  govern  themselves.  Law — statute — man-made  law,  is 
license.  Anarchy — natural  law — is  liberty.  Anarchy  is  the  cessation  of 
force.  Government  is  the  rulership  or  control  of  man  by  men,  in  the 
name  of  law— by  means  of  statute  law — ^whether  that  control  be  by  one 
man  (w/on-arche)  or  by  a  majority  (mo6-arche).  The  effort  of  the  wage- 
slaves  (now  being  made)  to  participate  in  the  making  of  laws  will  enable 
them  to  discover  for  the  first  time  that  a  human  law-maker  is  a  human 
humbug.  That  laws,  true,  just  and  perfect  laws,  are  discovered,  not 
made.  The  law-making  class — the  capitalists — will  object  to  this;  they 
(the  capitalists)  will  remonstrate,  they  will  fight,  they  will  kill,  before  they 
permit  laws  to  be  made,  or  repealed,  which  deprives  them  of  their  power 
to  rule  and  rob.  This  fact  is  demonstrated  in  every  strike  which  threatens 
their  power;  by  every  lock-out,  by  every  discharge,  by  every  black-list. 
Their  exercise  of  these  powers  is  based  upon  force,  and  every  law,  every 
government  in  the  last  analysis  is  resolved  into  force.  Therefore,  when 
the  workers,  as  they  are  now  everywhere  preparing  to  do,  insist  upon  and 
demand  a  participation  in,  or  application  of  democratic  })rinciples  in 
industrial  affairs,  think  you  the  request  will  be  conceded?  Nay,  nay. 
The  right  to  live,  to  equality  of  opportunity,  to  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  is  yet  to  be  acquired  by  the  producers  of  all  wealth.  The 
Knights  of  Labor  unconsciously  stand  upon  a  state  socialist  programme. 
They  w^l  never  be  able  to  seize  the  state  by  ballot,  but  when  they  do  seize 
it  (and  seize  it  they  must)  they  will  abolish  it.  Legalized  capital  and  the 
state  stand  or  fall  together.  They  are  twins.  The  liberty  of  labor  makes 
the  state  not  only  unnecessary,  but  impossible.  When  the  people — the 
whole  people — become  the  state,  that  is,  participate  equally  in  governing 
themselves,  the  state  of  necessity  ceases  to  exist.  Then  what  ?  Leaders, 
natural  leaders,  take  the  place  of  the  overthrown  rulers;  liberty  takes 
the  place  of  statute  laws,  of  license ;  the  people  voluntarily  associate 
or  freely  withdraw  from  association,  instead  of  being  bossed  or 
driven,  as  now.  They  unite  and  disunite,  when,  where,  and  as  they 
please.  Social  administration  is  substituted  for  governmentalism,  and 
self-preservation  becomes  the  actuating  motive,  as  now,  minus  the  dicta- 
tion, coercion,  driving  and  domination  of  man  by  man.  Do  you  say 
this  is  a  dream?  That  it  is  the  millenium?  Well,  the  crisis  is  near 
at  hand.  Necessity,  which  is  its  own  law,  will  force  the  issue.  Then 
whatever  is  most  natural  to  do  will  be  the  easiest  and  best  to  do.  The 
workshops  will  drop  into  the  hands  of  the  workers,  the  mines  will  fall  to 
the  miners,  and  the  land  and  all  other  things  will  be  controlled  by  those 
who  possess  and  use  them.  There  will  be,  there  can  then  be  no  title  to  any- 
thing aside  from  its  possession  and  use.  Drily  the  statute  law  and  govern- 
ment stand  to-day  as  a  ban-ierto  this  result,  and  all  efforts  to  change  them 
failing,  will  inevitably  result  in  their  total  abolition. 

"Anarchy,  therefore,  is  liberty;  is  the  negation  of  force,  or  compul- 
sion, or  violence.  It  is  the  precise  reverse  of  that  which  those  who  hold 
and  love  power  would  have  their  oppressed  victims  believe  it  is. 


106  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

'•  Anarchists  do  not  advocate  or  advise  the  use  of  force.  Anarchists 
disclaim  and  protest  against  its  use,  and  the  use  of  force  is  justifiable  only 
when  employed  to  repel  force.  Who,  then,  are  the  aiders,  abettors  and 
users  of  force?  Who  are  the  real  revolutionists?  Are  they  not  those 
who  hold  and  exercise  power  over  their  fellows  ?  They  who  use  clubs  and 
bayonets,  prisons  and  scaffolds  ?  The  great  class  conflict  now  gathering 
throughout  the  world  is  created  by  our  social  system  of  industrial  slavery. 
Capitalists  could  not  if  they  would,  and  would  not  if  they  could,  change 
it.  This  alone  is  to  be  the  work  of  the  proletariat,  the  disinherited,  the 
wage-slave,  the  sufferer.  Nor  can  the  wage-class  avoid  this  conflict. 
Neither  religion  or  politics  can  solve  it  or  prevent  it.  It  comes  as  a  hu- 
man, an  imperative  necessity.  Anarchists  do  not  make  the  social  revolu- 
tion; they  prophesy  its  coming.  Shall  we  then  stone  the  prophets? 
Anarchists  do  not  use  or  advise  the  use  of  force,  but  point  out  that  force 
is  ever  employed  to  uphold  despotism  to  despoil  man's  natural  rights. 
Shall  we  therefore  kill  and  destroy  the  anarchists  ?  And  capital  shouts, 
*  Yes,  yes !  exterminate  them ! ' 

''  In  the  line  of  evolution  and  historical  development,  anarchy — ^lib- 
erty— is  next  in  order.  With  the  destruction  of  the  feudal  system, 
and  the  birth  of  commercialism  and  manufactories  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, a  contest  long  and  bitter  and  bloody,  lasting  over  a  hundred  years, 
was  waged  for  mental  and  religious  liberty.  The  seventeenth  and  eight- 
eenth centuries,  with  their  sanguinary  conflicts,  gave  to  man  political 
equality  and  civil  liberty,  based  on  the  monopolization  of  the  resources  of 
life,  capital — with  its  '  free  laborers ' — freely  competing  with  one  another 
for  a  chance  to  serve  king  capital,  and  '  free  competition '  among  capi- 
talists in  their  endeavors  to  exploit  the  laborers  and  monopolize  the  labor 
products.  All  over  the  world  the  fact  stands  undisputed  that  the  political 
is  based  upon,  and  is  but  the  reflex  of  the  economic  system,  and  hence  we 
find  that  whatever  the  political  form  of  the  government,  whether  mon- 
archial  or  republican,  the  average  social  status  of  the  wage-workers  is  in 
every  country  identical.  The  class  struggle  of  the  past  century  is  history 
repeating  itself;  it  is  the  evolutionary  growth  preceding  the  revolutionary 
denoument.  Though  liberty  is  a  growth,  it  is  also  a  birth,  and  while  it  is 
yet  to  be,  it  is  also  about  to  be  born.  Its  birth  will  come  through  travail 
and  pain,  through  bloodshed  and  violence.  It  cannot  be  prevented.  This, 
because  of  the  obstructions,  impediments  and  obstacles  which  servo  as  a 
barrier  to  its  coming.  An  anarchist  is  a  believer  in  liberty,  and  as  I  would 
control  no  man  against  his  will,  neither  shall  any  one  rule  over  me  with 
my  consent.  Government  is  compulsion;  no  one  freely  consents  to  be 
governed  by  another,  therefore  there  can  be  no  just  power  of  government. 
Anarchy  is  perfect  liberty,  is  absolute  freedom  of  the  individual.  Anarchy 
has  no  schemes,  no  programmes,  no  systems  to  offer  or  to  substitute  for 
the  existing  order  of  things.  Anarchy  would  strike  fi'om  humanity  every 
chain  that  binds  it,  and  say  to  mankind:  '  Go  forth!  you  are  free!  Have 
all;  enjoy  all! ' 

"Anarchism  or  anarchists  neither  advise,  abet  nor  encourage  the 
working  people  to  the  use  of  force  or  a  resort  to  violence.  Wo  do  not  say 
to  the  wage-slaves:  'You  ought,  you  should  use  force.'     No.     Why  say 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHISM.  107 

this  when  we  know  they  must — they  will  be  driven  to  use  it  in  self-de- 
fense, in  self-preservation,  against  those  who  are  degrading,  enslaving  and 
destroying  them. 

"  Already  the  millions  of  workers  are  unconsciously  anarchists.  Im- 
pelled by  a  cause,  the  effects  of  which  they  feel  but  do  not  wholly  under- 
stand, they  move  unconsciously,  irresistibly  forward  to  the  social  revolu- 
tion.    Mental  freedom,  political  equality,  industrial  liberty! 

"  This  is  the  natural  order  of  things,  the  logic  of  events.  Who  so 
foolish  as  to  quarrel  with  it,  obstruct  it,  or  attempt  to  stay  its  progress  ?  It 
is  the  march  of  the  inevitable;  the  triumph  of  progress." 


Paksons'  Plea  for  Anakchy. 

[From  the  N.  Y.    Herad^  August  30,  1886.] 

"  So  much  is  written  and  said  nowadays  about  socialism  or  anarchism, 
that  a  few  words  on  this  subject  from  one  who  holds  to  these  doctrines 
may  be  of  interest  to  the  readers  of  your  great  newspaper. 

"•Anarchy  is  the  perfection  of  personal  liberty  or  self-government 
It  is  the  free  play  of  nature's  law,  the  abrogation  of  the  statute.  It 
is  the  negation  of  force  or  the  domination  of  man  by  man.  In  the 
place  of  the  law  maker  it  puts  the  law  discoverer  and  for  the  dri- 
ver, or  dictator,  or  ruler,  it  gives  free  play  to  the  natural  leader.  It  leaves 
man  free  to  be  happy  or  miserable,  to  be  rich  or  poor,  to  be  mean  or  good. 
The  natural  law  is  self-operating,  self-enacting,  and  cannot  be  repealed, 
amended  or  evaded  without  incurring  a  self-imposed  penalty.  The  statute 
law  is  license.  Anarchy  is  liberty.  The  socialistic  or  anarchistic  pro- 
gramme leaves  the  people  perfectly  free  to  unite  or  disunite  for  the  pur- 
pose of  production  and  consumption.  It  gives  absolute  freedom  of  con- 
tract by  and  between  individuals  or  associations,  and  places  the  means 
of  life — capital — at  the  disposal  of  the  people.  To  those  persons  who 
may  regard  these  aspirations  as  merely  sentimental  or  Utopian,  I  invite 
their  attention  to  the  operation  of  our  capitalistic  system,  as  outlined  by 
Marx  and  others. 

"  The  capitalist  system  originated  in  the  forcible  seizure  of  natural 
opportunities  and  rights  by  a  few,  and  converting  these  things  into  special 
privileges,  which  have  since  become  vested  rights  formally  entrenched  be- 
hind the  bulwarks  of  statute  law  and  government.  Capital  could  not 
exist  unless  there  also  existed  a  class,  a  majority  class,  who  are  property- 
less — that  is,  without  capital.  A  class  whose  only  mode  of  existence  is  by 
selling  their  labor  to  capitalists.  Capitalists  maintained,  fostered  and 
perj'etuated  by  law.  In  fact,  capital  is  law,  statute  law,  and  law  is 
capital. 

"  Labor  is  a  commodity,  and  wages  is  the  price  paid  for  it.  The 
owner  of  the  commodity,  labor,  sells  it  (himself)  to  the  owner 
of  caj)ital  in  order  to  live.  Labor  is  the  expression  of  the  energy 
or  power  of  the  laborer's  life.  This  energy  or  power  he  must  sell 
to    another    person    in    order     to    live.       It    is     his    only    means    of 


108  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

existence.  He  works  to  live.  But  his  work  is  not  simply  a  part 
of  his  life.  On  the  contrarj^,  it  is  the  sacrifice  of  it.  It  is  a  commodity 
which  under  the  guise  of  '  free  labor '  he  is  forced  by  necessity  to  hand 
over  to  another  party.  The  aim  of  the  wage  laborer's  activity  is  not  the 
product  of  his  labor.  Far  from  it.  The  silk  he  weaves,  the  palace 
he  builds,  the  ores  he  digs  from  out  the  mine  are  not  for  him.  The  only 
thing  he  produces  for  himself  is  his  wage,  and  silk,  ores  and  palace  are 
merely  transformed  for  him  into  a  certain  quantity  of  means  of  existence 
— viz:  a  cotton  shirt,  a  few  pennies  and  the  mere  tenancy  of  a  lodging 
house. 

"  And  what  of  the  laborer  who  for  twelve  or  more  hours  weaves,  spins 
bores,  turns,  builds,  shovels,  breaks  stones,  caiTies  loads,  and  so  on  ?  Does 
his  twelve  hours  weaving,  spinning,  boring,  turning,  building,  shoveling, 
etc.,  represent  the  active  expression  or  energy  of  his  life?  On  the  con- 
trary, life  begins  for  him  exactly  where  this  activity,  this  labor  of  his 
ceases — viz:  at  his  meals,  in  his  tenement  house,  in  his  bed.  His  twelve 
hours  work  represents  for  him  as  a  weaver,  builder,  spinner,  etc.,  only  so 
much  earnings  as  will  furnish  him  his  meals,  clothes  and  rent.  Capital  ever 
grows  with  what  it  feeds  on — viz :  the  life,  the  very  existence,  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  the  men,  women  and  children  of  toil.  The  wage  slaves  are  '  free ' 
to  compete  with  each  other  for  the  oppoi-tunity  to  serve  capital  and  capi- 
talists to  compete  with  each  other  in  monopolizing  the  laborer's  products. 
This  law  of  '  free '  competition  establishes  the  iron  law  of  subsistence  wages. 
Thus  in  every  country  the  average  wage  of  the  working  people  is  regulated 
by  what  it  takes  to  maintain  a  bare  subsistence  and  perpetuate  their  class. 

*'  The  increase  of  capital  grows  with  every  stroke  of  the  laborers.  So 
does  his  dependence.  To-day  there  are  but  two  classes  in  the  world — to 
wit:  the  capitalist  class  and  the  wage  class;  the  latter  a  hereditary  serv- 
ing class,  dependent  upon  the  former  for  work  and  bread;  the  former  a 
dictating  class,  dominating  and  exploiting  the  latter. 

"  The  struggle  of  classes,  the  conflict  between  capital  and  labor  is  for 
possession  of  the  labor  product  of  the  laborers.  As  profits  rise  wages  fall, 
and  as  wages  rise  profits  fall.  As  the  ^^hare  of  the  capitalist  (his  profit) 
increases,  the  share  of  the  laborer  (his  wages)  diminishes,  and  the  interest 
of  the  capitalist  class  is  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  interests  of  the  wage 
class.  Profit  and  wages  for  every  class  are  in  inverse  proportion.  Wage 
laborers  are  doomed  by  the  capitalist  system  to  forge  for  themselves  the 
golden  chains  which  bind  them  more  securely  in  industrial  slavery.  Thus 
the  industrial  war  wages — to  wit:  the  captains  and  generals  of  industry 
contest  with  each  other  as  to  who  can  dispense  with  the  greatest  number 
of  industrial  soldiers.  This  brings  on  a  rapid  sub- division  and  simplifi- 
cation of  the  productive  process,  the  employment  of  women  and  children, 
and  the  introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery.    Eesult,  surplus  laborers. 

"  The  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  tells  us  in  last 
year's  report  that  over  one  million  able-bodied  men  were  in  compulsory 
idleness,  and  that  the  general  average  of  wages  for  the  whole  wage  class 
was  estimated  at  fifty-five  cents  per  day.  As  the  stmggle  for  existence 
intensifies  among  the  laborers  the  struggle  among  capitalists  for  profits 
intensifies  also.     The  crisis  ?     \\Tiat  is  it  ?     When  the  dead  level  of  cost 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAECHI8M.  109 

of  production  is  reached,  which  is  near  if  not  already  at  hand — the  capi- 
talist system — being  no  longer  able  to  preserve  the  lives  of  its  slaves — the 
wage  workers — will  collapse,  will  fall  of  its  own  weight,  and  fail  because 
of  its  own  weakness.  Modern  enterprise  and  commercialism  is  the  old- 
time  piracy  of  our  fathers  legalized,  made  respectable  and  safe.  The 
homeless,  the  destitute,  hungry  and  ragged,  and  ignorant  and  miserable, 
are  the  victims,  the  creatures,  the  offspring,  the  product  of  our  modern 
system  of  legalized  piracy.  The  capitalist  system  has  its  morality — a 
plastic,  convenient  morality — which  it  puts  on  or  off  like  a  coat. 

"  The  golden  rule  of  the  carpenter's  son  is  made  subservient  to  the 
laws  of  trade,  whoso  morality  and  religion  are  expounded  in  the  churches 
(temples  of  Mammon)  where  the  clergy  propagate  that  good  philosophy 
which  teaches  man  (poor  man) .  that  he  is  here  to  suffer,  denouncing  as 
atheistic  and  anarchistic  that  other  philosophy  which  says  to  man :  *  Go ! 
the  earth  is  the  gift  of  God  to  the  whole  human  race.  Discover  nature's 
laws,  apply  them  and  be  happy.' 

"  To  quarrel  with  socialism  is  silly  and  vain.  To  do  so  is  to  quarrel 
with  history;  to  denounce  the  logic  of  events;  to  smother  the  aspirations 
of  liberty.  Mental  freedom,  political  freedom,  industrial  freedom — do 
not  these  follow  in  the  line  of  progress  ?  Are  they  not  the  association  of 
the  inevitable  ?  A.  R.  Parsons." 


Lucy  E.  Paksons  on  Anarchy. 

[We  are  frequently  asked,  '  what  is  anarchy  and  what  do  the  anarchists 
want?'  We  are  free  to  confess  that  in  all  we  have  read  and  heard  from  anarchists 
about  how  they  expected  to  attain  their  ends,  we  never  read  or  heard  just  what 
those  ends  were.  In  an  interview  with  the  New  York  Worlds  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Par- 
sons, the  well-known  lecturess  in  this  new  school  of  social  economy,  gave  the  most 
succinct  account  we  have  ever  seen;  and  in  answer  to  the  question,  'what  is 
anarchy,'  reprint  the  interview. — Editor  Knights  of  Labor,  Cliicago.] 

"  In  reply  to  the  reporter's  inquiry  as  to  the  prospects  of  anarchy  in 
this  country  and  the  world  in  general,  the  woman  anarchist  dropped  her 
eyes  for  a  moment  in  deep  thought  and  said: 

'''This  is  the  evolutionary  stage  of  anarchism.  The  revolutionary 
period  will  be  reached  when  the  great  middle  classes  are  practically  extinct. 
The  great  monopolies  and  cbrporations  and  syndicates  met  with  on  every 
hand  are  now  rapidly  extinguishing  the  middle  classes,  which  we  regard 
as  the  one  great  l3ulwark  between  the  monopoly  or  wealthy  class  and  the 
gi'oat  producing  or  working  class.  There  will  come  a  time  when  there 
will  be  in  this  world  only  two  classes— the  possessing  class  and  the  non- 
possessing  l)ut  producing  class,  the  middle  classes  have  been  forced  into 
the  wage,  class,  owing  to  the  enormous  capital  now  needed  to  remain  in 
the  field  of  production.  These  two  classes  will  therefore  find  themselves 
l^rrayed  against  each  other;  a  struggle,  the  revolutionary'  stage  will  come 


110  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM. 

and  the  order  of  things  in  the  world  will  be  changed  by  the  people  them- 
selves'. 

"  'Will  the  change  come  peaceably?' 

"'I  think  not,  for  all  history  shows  that  every  attempt  to  wrest  from 
the  wealthy  and  powerful  that  which  they  have,  has  been  made  by  force. 
The  vanguard  of  this  struggling  army  will  be  found  in  America,  because 
Americans  will  never  submit  to  being  forced  to  the  conditions  of  the 
European  masses.  All  the  signs  of  the  times  show  that  the  fight  will 
begin  here.  Witness  the  strikes  without  number  that  have  swept  up  and 
down  this  broad  land  like  a  grand  cyclone.  Millionaires  are  made  here  in 
one  generation,  whereas  it  takes  centuries  in  Europe,  and  that  is  a  fact  that 
proves  that  Americans  will  respond  to  tjuo  k.^^±  me  quicker.  The  wage 
system  in  this  country  has  now  reached  its  full  development.  It  no  longer 
satisfies  the  needs  and  wants  r.nd  aspirations  of  the  people,  facts  which 
are  illustrated  by  the  poverty  and  starvation  to  be  met  with  in  the  midst 
of  plenty.' 

"'When  this  struggle  comes  and  culminates  in  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  what  then  ?     What  sort  of  a  state  will  follow  under  anarchism  ?' 

"'Well,  first  let  us  look  at  the  derivation  of  anarchy.  It  means  with 
out  rule.  We  pre-suppose  that  the  wage  system  has  been  abolished. 
There  wage -slavery  ends  and  anarchy  begins,  but  you  musn't  confuse  this 
state  with  the  revolutionary  period,  as  people  are  in  the  habit  of  doing. 
We  hold  that  the  granges,  trade-unions,  Knights  of  Labor  assemblies, 
etc.,  are  the  embryonic  groups  of  the  ideal  anarchistic  society.  Under 
anarchy  the  different  groups,  including  all  the  industrial  trades,  such  as 
the  farmer,  the  shoemaker,  the  printer,  the  painter,  the  hatter,  the  cigar- 
maker,  etc.,  will  maintain  themselves  apart  and  distinct  from  the  whole. 
We  ask  for  the  decentralization  of  power  from  the  central  government 
into  the  groups  or  classes.  The  farmers  will  supply  so  much  of  the  land 
products,  the  shoemaker  so  many  shoes,  the  hatters  so  many  hats,  and  so 
on,  all  of  them  measui'ing  the  consumption  by  statistics  which  will  be  accu- 
rately compiled  and  published.  Land  will  be  in  common,  and  there  will 
be  no  rent,  no  interest  and  no  profit.  Therefore  there  will  be  no  Jay 
Goulds,  no  Vanderbilts,  no  corporations  and  no  moneyed  power. 

'"Drudgery,  such  as  exists  to-day  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
The  children  will  be  taken  fi*om  the  factories  and  sent  to  museums  and 
schools.  The  number  of  hours  of  labor  will  be  reduced,  and  people  will 
have  more  time  for  pleasui*e  and  cultivation  of  the  mind.  We  base  all 
these  results  on  natural  reasons,  believing  that  nature  has  implanted  in 
every  man,  in  common  with  all  his  fellows,  certain  instincts  and  certain 
capacities.  If  a  man  won't  work  nature  makes  him  starve,  so  in  our 
state,  you  must  work  or  starve.  But  we  claim  that  the  sum  of  human 
happiness  will  be  increased,  while  the  drudgery  and  poverty  and  misery 
of  the  world  of  to-day,  all  due  to  the  powerful  concentration  of  capital^ 
will  be  done  away  with.  It  will  be  impossible  for  a  man  to  accumulate 
Gould's  wealth,  because  there  would  be  no  such  thing  as  profit,  and  no 
man  could  get  more  for  his  work  than  he  produces.  There  would  be  no 
over-production,  because  only  enough  of  any  one  article  would  be  pro- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OP   ANARCHISM.  Ill 

duced  to  meet  the  demand.  There  will  be  no  political  parties,  no  capital- 
ists, no  rings,  no  kings,  no  statesmen  and  no  rulers.' 

"'How  is  this  change  to  be  brought  about f 

"'That  comes  in  the  revolutionary  stage  and  will  happen,  as  I  said, 
when  the  final  great  struggle  of  the  masses  against  the  moneyed  powers 
takes  place.  The  money  and  wages  now  found  in  the  possession  of  the 
wage  class  represent  the  bare  coarse  necessaries  of  life,  nothing  over  when 
the  bills  from  one  week  to  another  are  paid.  The  rest  goes  to  the 
profit- taking  class,  and  that  is  why  we  call  the  system  wage- slavery.' 

"  'What  criticism  of  the  present  form  of  government  do  you  make?' 

'"All  political  government  must  necessarily  become  despotic,  because 
all  government  tends  to  become  centralized  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  who 
breed  corruption  among  themselves,  and  in  a  very  short  time  disconnect 
themselves  from  the  body  of  the  people.  The  American  republic  is  a  good 
illustration.  Here  we  have  the  semblance  of  a  republic,  of  a  democracy, 
but  it  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  powerful  few,  who  rule  with  a  despot- 
ism absolutely  impossible  in  Europe.  I  have  but  to  refer  you  to  Carter 
Harrison's  interview  not  long  ago  in  the  JVorld,  in  which  he  remarked 
that  the  atrocities  committed  on  the  anarchists  in  Chicago  would  not  have 
been  suffered  in  any  monarchy.'  " 


CHAPTEK  III. 


The  Scientific  Basis  of  Anarchy. 

By  Peter  (Prince)  Kropotkin. 

Anarchy,  the  no-government  system  of  socialism,  has  a  double 
origin.  It  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  two  great  movements  of  thought 
in  the  economical  and  the  political  fields  which  characterise  our  century, 
and  especially  its  second  part.  In  common  with  all  socialists,  the  anarch- 
ists hold  that  the  private  ownership  of  land,  capital,  and  machinery  has 
had  its  time;  that  it  is  condemned  to  disappear;  and  that  all  requisites 
for  production  must,  and  will,  become  the  common  property  of  society, 
and  be  managed  in  common  by  the  producers  of  wealth.  And,  in  common 
with  the  most  advanced  representatives  of  political  radicalism,  they  main- 
tain that  the  ideal  of  the  political  organization  of  society  is  a  condition  of 
things  where  the  functions  of  government  are  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and 
the  individual  recovers  his  full  liberty  of  initiative  and  action  for  satisfy- 
ing, by  means  of  free  groups  and  federations — freely  constituted — all  the 
infinitely  varied  needs  of  the  human  being.  As  regards  socialism,  most  of 
the  anarchists  amve  at  its  ultimate  conclusion,  that  is,  at  a  complete  nega- 
tion of  the  wage  system  and  at  communism.  And  with  reference  to  polit- 
ical organization,  by  giving  a  further  develoj)ment  to  the  above  mentioned 
part  of  the  radical  programme,  they  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  ulti- 
mate aim  of  society  is  the  reduction  of  the  functions  of  government  to  nil 


112  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

— that  is,  to  a  society  without  government,  to  an-archy.  The  anarchists 
maintain,  moreover,  that  such  being  the  ideal  of  social  and  political  organiza- 
tion, they  must  not  remit  it  to  future  centuries,  but  that  only  those  changes 
in  our  social  organization  which  are  in  accordance  with  the  above  double 
ideal,  and  constitute  an  approach  to  it,  will  have  a  chance  of  life  and  be 
beneficial  for  the  commonwealth. 

As  to  the  method  followed  by  the  anarchist  thinker,  it  differs  to  a 
great  extent  from  that  followed  by  the  utopists.  The  anarchist  thinker 
does  not  resort  to  metaphysical  conceptions  (like  the  "natural  rights,"  the 
"duties  of  the  State,"  and  so  on)  for  establishing  what  are,  in  his  opinion, 
the  best  conditions  for  realizing  the  greatest  happiness  of  humanity.  He 
follows,  on  the  contrary,  the  course  traced  by  the  modern  philosophy  of 
evolution — without  entering,  however,  the  slippery  route  of  mere  analo- 
gies so  often  resorted  to  by  Herbert  Spencer.  He  studies  human  society 
as  it  is  now  and  was  in  the  past;  and,  without  either  endowing  men  alto- 
gether, or  separate  individuals,  with  superior  qualities  which  they  do  not 
possess,  he  merely  considers  society  as  an  aggregation  of  organisms  trying 
to  find  out  the  best  ways  of  combining  the  wants  of  the  individual  with 
those  of  co-operation  for  the  welfare  of  the  species.  He  studies  society 
and  tries  to  discover  its  tendencies,  past  and  present,  its  growing  needs, 
intellectual  and  economical;  and  in  his  ideal  he  merely  points  out  in 
which  direction  evolution  goes.  He  distinguishes  between  the  real  wants 
and  tendencies  of  human  aggregations  and  the  accidents  (want  of  knowl- 
edge, migrations,  wars,  conquests)  which  prevented  these  tendencies  from 
being  satisfied,  or  temporarily  paralyzed  them.  And  he  concludes  that 
the  two  most  prominent,  although  often  unconscious,  tendencies  through- 
out our  history  were:  a  tendency  towards  integrating  our  labor  for  the 
production  of  all  riches  in  common,  so  as  finally  to  render  it  impossible  to 
discriminate  the  part  of  the  common  production  due  to  the  separate  indi- 
vidual; and  a  tendency  towards  the  fullest  freedom  of  the  individual  for 
the  prosecution  of  all  aims,  beneficial  both  for  himself  and  for  society  at 
large.  The  ideal  of  the  anarchist  is  thus  a  mere  summing-up  of  what  he 
considers  to  be  the  next  phase  of  evolution.  It  is  no  longer  a  matter  of 
faith;  it  is  a  matter  for  scientific  discussion. 

In  fact,  one  of  the  leading  features  of  our  century  is  the  growth  of 
socialism  and  the  rapid  spreading  of  socialist  views  among  the  working 
classes.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  We  have  witnessed  during  the  last 
seventy  years  an  unparalleled  sudden  increase  of  our  powers  of  produc- 
tion, resulting  in  an  accumulation  of  wealth  which  has  outstripped  the 
most  sanguine  expectations.  But,  owing  to  our  wage  system,  this  increase 
of  wealth — due  to  the  combined  efforts  of  men  of  science,  of  managers, 
and  workmen  as  well — has  resulted  only  in  an  unpre vented  accumulation 
of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  owners  of  capital ;  while  an  increase  of 
misery  for  the  great  numbers,  and  an  insecurity  of  life  for  all,  have  been 
the  lot  of  the  workmen.  The  unskilled  laborers,  in  continuous  search  for 
labor,  are  falling  into  an  unheard-of  destitution;  and  even  the  best  paid 
artisans  and  skilled  workmen,  who  undoubtedly  are  living  now  a  more 
comfortable  life  than  before,  labor  under  the  permanent  menace  of  being 
thrown,  in  their  turn,  into  ihe  same  conditions  as  the  unskilled  paupers, 
in   consequence  of  some    of    the   continuous   and    unavoidable   fluctu- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANAKCHISM.  113 

ations  of  industry,  and  caprices  of  capital.  The  chasm  between  the 
modem  millionaire  who  squanders  the  produce  of  human  labor  in 
a  gorgeous  and  vain  luxury,  and  the  pauper  reduced  to  a  miser- 
able anti  insecure  existence,  is  thus  growing  more  and  more,  so  as 
to  break  the  very  unity  of  society — the  harmony  of  its  life—  and  to  endan- 
ger the  progress  of  its  fiu'ther  development.  At  the  same  time,  the  work- 
ing classes  are  the  less  inclined  patiently  to  endure  this  division  of 
society  into  two  classes,  as  they  themselves  become  more  and  more  con- 
scious of  the  wealth-producing  power  of  modern  industry,  of  the  part 
played  by  labor  in  the  production  of  wealth,  and  of  their  own  capacities 
of  organization.  In  proportion  as  all  classes  of  the  community  take  a 
more  lively  part  in  public  affairs,  and  knowledge  spreads  among  the 
masses,  their  longing  for  equality  becomes  stronger,  and  their  demands 
of  social  reorganization  become  louder  and  louder.  They  can  be  ignored 
no  more.  The  worker  claims  his  share  in  the  riches  he  produces;  he 
claims  his  share  in  the  management  of  production ;  and  he  claims  not  only 
some  additional  well-being,  but  also  his  full  rights  in  the  higher  enjoy- 
ments of  science  and  art.  These  claims,  which  formerly  were  uttered 
only  by  the  social  reformer,  begin  now  to  be  made  by  a  daily  growing 
minority  of  those  who  work  in  the  factory  or  till  the  acre;  and  they  so 
conform  with  our  feelings  of  justice,  that  they  find  support  in  a  daily 
growing  minority  amidst  the  priviledged  classes  themselves.  Socialism 
becomes  thus  the  idea  of  the  nineteenth  century;  and  neither  coercion  nor 
pseudo-reforms  can  stop  its  further  growth. 

Much  hope  of  improvement  was  laid,  of  course,  in  the  extension  of 
political  rights  to  the  working  classes.  But  these  concessions,  unsupported 
as  they  were  by  corresponding  changes  in  the  economical  relations  proved 
delusory.  They  did  not  materially  improve  the  conditions  of  the  great 
bulk  of  the  workmen.  Therefore,  the  watchword  of  socialism  is: 
"  Economical  freedom,  as  the  only  secure  basis  for  political  freedom." 
And  as  long  as  the  present  wage  system,  with  all  its  bad  consequences, 
remains  unaltered,  the  socialist  watchword  will  continue  to  inspire  the 
workmen.  Socialism  will  continue  to  grow  until  it  has  realized  its 
programme. 

Side  by  side  with  this  great  movement  of  thought  in  economical 
matters,  a  like  movement  was  going  on  with  regard  to  political  rights, 
political  organization,  and  the  functions  of  government.  Government 
was  submitted  to  the  same  criticism  as  capital.  While  most  of  the  radi- 
cals saw  in  universal  suffrage  and  republican  institutions  the  last  word  of 
political  wisdom  a  further  step  was  made  by  the  few.  The  very  functions 
of  government  and  the  State,  as  also  their  relations  to  the  individual,  were 
submitted  to  a  sharper  and  deeper  criticism.  Kepresentative  government 
having  been  experimented  on  a  wider  field  than  before,  its  defects  became 
more  and  more  prominent.  It  became  obvious  that  these  defects  are  not 
merely  accidental,  but  inherent  to  the  system  itself.  Parliament  and  its 
executive  proved  to  be  unable  to  attend  to  all  the  numberless  affairs  of  the 
community  and  to  conciliate  the  varied  and  often  opposite  interests  of  the 
separate  parts  of  a  State.  Election  proved  unable  to  find  out  the  men 
who  might  represent  a  nation,  and  manage,  otherwise  than  in  a  party 
spirit,  the  affairs  they  are  compelled  to  legislate  upon.     These  defects  .be- 


114  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

came  so  striking  that  the  very  principles  of  the  representative  system  were 
criticised  and  their  justness  doubted.  Again,  the  dangers  of  a  centralized 
government  became  still  more  conspicuous  when  the  socialists  came  to  the 
front  and  asked  for  a  further  increase  of  the  powers  of  government  by 
entrusting  it  with  the  management  of  the  immense  field  covered  now  by 
the  economical  relations  between  individuals.  The  question  was  asked, 
whether  a  government,  entrusted  with  the  management  of  industry  and 
trade,  would  not  become  a  permanent  danger  for  liberty  and  peace,  and 
whether  it  even  would  be  able  to  be  a  good  manager  ? 

The  socialists  of  the  earlier  part  of  this  century  did  not  fully  realize 
the  immense  difficulties  of  the  problem.  Convinced  as  they  vv^ero  of  the 
necessity  of  economical  reforms,  most  of  them  took  no  notice  of  the  need 
of  freedom  for  the  individual ;  and  we  have  had  social  reformers  ready  to 
submit  society  to  any  kind  of  theocracy,  dictatorship,  or  even  Csesarism,  in 
order  to  obtain  reform  in  a  socialist  sense.  Therefore  we  saw,  in  this 
country  and  also  on  the  continent,  the  division  of  men  of  advanced  opinions 
into  political  radicals  and  socialists — the  former  looking  with  distrust  on 
the  latter,  as  they  saw  in  them  a  danger  for  the  political  liberties  which 
have  been  won  by  the  civilized  nations  after  a  long  series  of  struggles.  And 
even  now,  when  the  socialists  all  over  Europe  are  becoming  political  par- 
ties, and  profess  the  democratic  faith,  there  remains  among  most  impartial 
men  a  well- founded  fear  of  the  Volksstaat  or  "popular  State"  being  as  great 
a  danger  for  liberty  as  any  form  of  autocracy,  if  its  government  be  entrusted 
with  the  management  of  all  the  social  organization,  including  the  produc- 
tion and  distribution  of  wealth. 

The  evolution  of  the  last  forty  years  prepared,  however,  the  way  for 
showiilg  the  necessity  and  possibility  of  a  higher  form  of  social  organiza- 
tion which  might  guarantee  economical  freedom  without  reducing  the 
individual  to  the  role  of  a  slave  to  the  State.  The  origins  of  government 
were  carefully  studied,  and  all  metaphysical  conceptions  as  to  divine  or 
"social  contract"  derivation  having  been  laid  aside,  it  appeared  that  it  is 
among  us  of  a  relatively  modern  origin,  and  that  its  powers  grew  pre- 
cisely in  proportion  as  the  division  of  society  into  the  privileged  and 
unprivileged  classes  was  growing  in  the  course  of  ages.  Representative 
government  was  also  reduced  to  its  real  value — that  of  an  instrument 
which  has  rendered  services  in  the  struggle  against  autocracy,  but  not  an 
ideal  of  fi'ee  political  organization.  As  to  the  system  of  philosophy  which 
saw  in  the  State  (the  Kultur-Staat)  a  leader  to  progress,  it  was  more  and 
more  shaken  as  it  became  evident  that  progi'ess  is  the  more  effective  when 
it  is  not  checked  by  State  interference.  It  thus  became  obvious  that 
a  further  advance  in  social  life  does  not  lie  in  the  direction  of  a  further 
concentration  of  power  and  regulative  fimctions  in  the  hands  of  a  govern- 
ing body,  but  in  the  direction  of  decentralization,  both  territorial  and 
functional — in  a  subdivision  of  public  functions  with  respect  both  to  their 
sphere  of  action  and  to  the  character  of  the  functions;  it  is  in  the  aban- 
donment to  the  initiative  of  freely  constituted  groups  of  all  those  functions 
which  are  now  considered  as  the  functions  of  government. 

This  current  of  thought  found  its  expression  not  merely  in  literature, 
but  also,  to  a  limited  extent,  in  life.  The  uprise  of  the  Paris  commune, 
followed  by  that  of  the  commune  of  Cartagena — a  movement  of  which  the 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   AKARCHISM.  115 

historical  bearing  seems  to  have  been  quite  overlooked  in  this  country — 
opened  a  new  i)age  of  history.  If  we  analyze  not  only  this  movement  in 
itself,  but  also  the  impression  it  left  in  the  minds  and  the  tendencies  which 
were  manifested  during  the  communal  revolution,  we  must  recognize  in  it 
an  indication  showing  that  in  the  future  human  agglomerations  which  are 
more  advanced  in  their  social  development  will  try  to  start  an  independent 
life;  and  that  they  will  endeavor  to  convert  the  more  backward  parts  of  a 
nation  by  example,  instead  of  imposing  their  opinions  by  law  and  force, 
or  submitting  themselves  to  the  majority  rule,  which  always  is  a  mediocrity 
rule.  At  the  same  time  the  failure  of  representative  government  within 
the  commune  itself  proved  that  self- government  and  self- administration 
must  be  carried  on  further  than  in  a  mere  territorial  sense ;  to  be  effective 
they  must  be  carried  on  also  with  regard  to  the  various  functions  of  life 
within  the  free  community;  a  merely  territorial  limitation  of  the  sphere 
of  action  of  government  will  not  do — representative  government  being  as 
deficient  in  a  city  as  it  is  a  nation.  Life  gave  thus  a  further  point  in 
favor  of  the  no -government  theory,  and  a  new  impulse  to  anarchist 
thought. 

Anarchists  recognize  the  justice  of  both  the  just-mentioned  tenden- 
cies towards  economical  and  political  freedom,  and  see  in  them  two  difPer- 
ent  manifestations  of  the  very  same  need  of  equality  which  constitutes  the 
very  essence  of  all  struggles  mentioned  by  history.  Therefore,  in  common 
with  all  socialists,  the  anarchist  says  to  the  political  reformer:  "No  sub- 
stantial reform  in  the  sense  of  political  equality,  and  no  limitation-  of  the 
powers  of  government,  can  be  made  as  long  as  society  is  divided  into  two 
hostile  camps,  and  the  laborer  remains,  economically  speaking,  a  serf,  to 
his  employer."  But  to  the  popular  state  socialist  we  say  also:  "You  can- 
not  modify  the  existing  conditions  of  property  without  deeply  modifying 
at  the  same  time  the  political  organization.  You  must  limit  the  powers  of 
government  and  renounce  parliamentary  rule.  To  each  new  economical 
phasis  of  life  corresponds  a  new  political  phasis.  Absolute  monarchy — 
that  is,  court-nile — corresponded  to  the  system  of  serfdom.  Representa- 
tive government  con'esponds  to  capital-rule.  Both,  however,  are  class 
rule.  But  in  a  society  where  the  distinction  between  capitalist  and  laborer 
has  disappeared,  there  is  no  need  of  such  a  government;  it  would  be  an 
anachronism,  a  nuisance.  Free  workers  would  require  a  free  organiza- 
tion, and  this  cannot  have  another  basis  than  free  agreement  and  free  co- 
operation, without  sacrificing  the  autonomy  of  the  individual  to  the  all- 
pervading  interference  of  the  State.  The  no-capitalist  system  implies  the 
no-government  system." 

Meaning  thus  the  emancipatian  of  man  from  the  oppressive  powers 
of  capitalist  and  government  as  well,  the  system  of  anarchy  becomes  a 
synthesis  of  the  two  powerful  currents  of  thought  which  characterize  our 
century. 

In  arriving  at  these  conclusions  anarchy  proves  to  be  in  accordance 
with  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  philosophy  of  evolution.  By  bring- 
ing to  the  light  the  plasticity  of  organizaton,  the  philosophy  of  evolution 
has  shown  the  admirable  adayitivity  of  organisms  to  their  conditions  of 
life,  and  the  ensuing  development  of  siich  faculties  as  render  more  com- 
plete both  the  adaptations  of  the  aggregates  to  their  surroundings  and 


116  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANA,RCHISM. 

those  of  each  of  the  constituent  parts  of  the  aggregate  to  the  needs  of  fi'ee 
co-operation.  It  familiarized  us  with  the  circumstance  that  throughout 
organic  natiu'e  the  capacities  for  life  in  common  are  growing  in  proportion 
as  the  integration  of  organisms  into  compound  aggregates  becomes  more 
and  more  complete;  and  it  enforced  thus  the  opinion  already  expressed 
by  social  moralists  as  to  the  perfectibility  of  human  nature.  It  has  shown 
us  that,  in  the  long  run  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  ''the  fittest"  will  prove 
to  be  those  who  combine  intellectual  knowledge  with  the  knowledge  neces- 
sary for  the  production  of  wealth,  and  not  those  who  are  now  the  richest 
because  they,  or  their  ancestors,  have  been  momentarily  the  strongest.  By 
showing  that  the  "struggle  for  existence"  must  be  conceived,  not  merely 
in  its  restricted  sense  of  a  struggle  between  individuals  for  the  means  of 
subsistence,  but  in  its  wider  sense  of  adaptation  of  all  individuals  of  the 
species  to  the  best  conditions  for  the  survival  of  the  species,  as  well  as  for 
the  greatest  possible  sum  of  life  and  happiness  for  each  and  all,  it  per- 
mitted us  to  deduce  the  laws  of  moral  science  from  the  social  needs  and 
habits  of  mankind.  It  showed  us  the  infinitesimal  part  played  by  posi- 
tive law  in  moral  evolution,  and  the  immense  part  played  by  the  natural 
growth  of  altruistic  feelings,  which  develop  as  soon  as  the  conditions  of 
life  favor  their  growth.  It  thus  enforced  the  opinion  of  social  reformers 
as  to  the  necessity  of  modifying  the  conditions  of  life  for  improving  man, 
instead  of  trying  to  improve  human  nature  by  moral  teachings  while  life 
works  in  an  opposite  direction.  Finally,  by  studying  human  society  from 
the  biological  point  of  view,  it  came  to  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by 
anarchists  from  the  study  of  history  and  present  tendencies,  as  to  further 
progress  being  in  the  line  of  socialization  of  wealth  and  integrated  labor, 
combined  with  the  fullest  possible  freedom  of  the  individual. 

It  is  not  a  mere  coincidence  that  Herbert  Spencer,  whom  we  may 
consider  as  a  pretty  fair  expounder  of  the  philosophy  of  evolution,  has 
been  brought  to  conclude,  with  regard  to  political  organization,  that  "that 
form  of  society  towards  which  we  are  progressing"  is  "one  in  which  gov- 
ernment will  be  reduced  to  the  smallest  amount  possible,  and  freedom 
increased  to  the  greatest  amount  possible."  When  he  opposes  in  these 
words  the  conclusion  of  his  synthetic  philosophy  to  those  of  Auguste 
Cr'mte,  he  arrives  at  very  nearly  the  same  conclusion  as  Proudhon  and 
Bakunin.  More  than  that,  the  very  methods  of  argumentation  and 
the  illustrations  resorted  to  by  Herbert  Spencer  (daily  supply  of  food, 
postofiice,  and  so  on)  are  the  same  which  we  find  in  the  writings  of  the 
anarchists.  The  channels  of  thought  were  the  same,  although  both  were 
unaware  of  each  other's  endeavors. 

A  gain,  when  Mr.  Spencer  so  powerfully  and  even  not  without  a 
touch  of  passion,  argues  (in  his  appendix  to  the  third  edition  of  the  Data 
of  Ethics)  that  human  societies  are  marching  towards  a  state  when  a  fur- 
ther indentification  of  altruism  with  egoism  will  be  made  "in  the  sense 
that  personal  gratification  will  come  from  the  gi-atification  of  others;"  when 
he  says  that  "we  are  shown,  undeniably,  that  it  is  a  perfectly  possible 
thing  for  organisms  to  become  so  adjusted  to  the  requirements  of  their 
lives,  that  energy  expended  for  the  general  welfare  may  not  only  be  ade- 
quate to  check  energy  expended  for  the  individual  welfare,  but  may  come 
to  subordinate  it  so  far  as  to  leave  individual  welfare  no  greater  part  than 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANABCHISM.  117 

is  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  individual  life" — provided  the  condi- 
tions for  such  relations  between  the  individual  and  the  community  be 
maintained  he  derives  from  the  study  of  nature  the  very  same  conclu- 
sions which  the  forerunners  of  anarchy,  Fourier,  and  Robert  Owen,  derived 
from  a  study  of  human  character. 

When  we  see  further  jVIr.  Bain  so  forcibly  elaborating  the  theory  of 
moral  habits,  and  the  French  philosopher,  M.  Guyau,  publishing  his 
remarkable  work  on  morality  without  obligation  or  sanction;  when  J.  S. 
Mill  so  sharply  criticises  representative  government,  and  when  he  discusses 
the  problem  of  liberty,  although  failing  to  establish  its  necessary  condi- 
tions; when  Sir  John  Lubbock  prosecutes  his  admirable  studies  on  animal 
societies,  and  Mr.  Morgan  applies  scientific  methods  of  investigation  to 
the  philosophy  of  history — when,  in  short,  every  year,  by  bringing  some 
new  arguments  to  the  theory  of  anarchy — we  must  recognize  that  this  last 
although  differing  as  to  its  starting  points,  follows  the  same  sound  meth- 
ods of  scientific  investigation.  Our  confidence  in  its  conclusions  is  still 
more  increased.  The  difference  between  anarchists  and  the  just-named 
philosophers  may  be  immense  as  to  the  presumed  speed  of  evolution,  and  as 
to  the  conduct  which  one  ought  to  assume  as  soon  as  he  has  had  an  insight 
into  the  aims  toward  which  society  is  marching.  No  attempt,  however, 
has  been  made  scientifically  to  determine  the  ratio  of  evolution,  nor  have 
the  chief  elements  of  the  problem  (the  state  of  mind  of  the  masses)  been 
taken  into  account  by  the  evolutionist  philosophers.  As  to  bringing  one's 
action  into  accordance  with  his  philosophical  conceptions,  we  know  that, 
unhappily,  intellect  and  will  are  too  oft.en  separated  by  a  chasm  not  to  be 
filled  by  mere  philosophical  speculations,  however  deep  and  elaborate. 

There  is,  however,  between  the  just-named  philosophers  and  the 
anarchists  a  wide  difference  on  one  point  of  primordial  importance.  This 
difference  is  the  stronger  as  it  arises  on  a  point  which  might  be  discussed 
figures  in  hand,  and  which  constitutes  the  very  basis  of  all  further  deduc- 
tion, as  it  belongs  to  what  biological  sociology  would  describe  as  the  phys- 
iology of  nutrition. 

There  is,  in  fact,  a  widely  spread  fallacy,  maintained  by  Mr.  Spencer 
and  many  others,  as  to  the  causes  of  the  misery  which  we  see  round  about 
us.  It  was  affirmed  forty  years  ago,  and  it  is  affirmed  now  by  Mr.  Spen- 
cer and  his  followers,  that  misery  in  civilized  society  is  due  to  our  insuffi- 
cient production,  or  rather  to  the  circumstance  that  "  population  presses 
upon  the  means  of  subsistence,"'  It  would  be  of  no  use  to  inquire  into 
the  origin  of  such  a  misrepresentation  of  facts,  which  might  be  easily  ver- 
ified. It  may  have  its  origin  in  inherited  misconce})tions  which  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  philosophy  of  evolution.  But  to  be  maintained  and 
advocated  by  philosophers,  there  must  be,  in  the  conceptions  of  these 
philosophers,  some  confusion  as  to  the  diff'erent  aspects  of  the  stniggle 
for  existence.  Sufficient  importance  is  not  given  to  the  difference  between 
the  struggle  which  goes  on  among  organisms  which  do  not  co-operate  for 
providing  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  those  which  do  so.  In  this  last 
case  again  there  must  be  some  confusion  between  those  aggregates  whose 
members  find  their  means  of  subsistence  in  the  ready  produce  of  the  vege- 
table and  animal  kingdom,  and  those  whose  members  artificially  grow  their 
means  of  subsistence  and  are  enabled  to  increase    (to   a  y*  t  imknown 


118  THE    PHIHLOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

amount)  the  productivity  of  each  spot  of  the  surface  of  the  globe.  Hun- 
ters who  hunt,  each  of  them  for  his  own  sake,  and  hunters  who  unite  into 
societies  for  hunting,  stand  quite  difPerently  with  regard  to  the  means  of 
subsistence.  But  the  difference  is  still  greater  between  the  hunters  who 
take  their  means  of  subsistence  as  they  are  in  nature,  and  civilized  men 
who  grow  their  food  and  produce  all  requisites  for  a  comfortable  life  by 
machinery.  In  this  last  case — the  stock  of  potential  energy  in  nature  be- 
ing little  short  of  infinite  in  comparison  with  the  present  population  of  the 
globe — the  means  of  availing  ourselves  of  the  stock  of  energy  are  increased 
and  perfected  precisely  in  proportion  to  the  density  of  population  and  to 
previously  accumulated  stock  of  technical  knowledge ;  so  that  for  human 
beings  who  are  in  possession  of  scientific  knowledge,  and  co-operate  for 
the  artificial  production  of  the  means  of  subsistence  and  comfort,  the  law 
is  quite  the  reverse  to  that  of  Malthus.  The  accumulation  of  means  of 
subsistence  and  comfort  is  going  on  at  a  much  speedier  rate  than  the  in- 
crease of  population.  The  only  conclusion  which  we  can  deduce  from  the 
laws  of  evolution  and  multiplication  of  effects  is  that  the  available  amount 
of  means  of  subsistence  increases  at  a  rate  which  increases  itself  in  propor- 
tion as  population  becomes  denser — unless  it  be  artificially  (and  tempor- 
arily) checked  by  some  defects  of  social  organization.  As  to  our  poivers 
of  production  (our  potential  production),  they  increase  at  a  still  speedier 
rate;  in  production  as  scientific  knowledge  grows,  the  means  for  spreading 
it  are  rendered  easier,  and  inventive  genius  is  stimulated  by  all  previous 
inventions. 

If  the  fallacy  as  to  the  pressure  of  population  on  the  means  of  subsis- 
tence could  be  maintained  a  hundi-ed  years  ago,  it  can  be  maintained  no 
more,  since  we  have  witnessed  the  effects  of  science  on  industry,  and  the 
enormous  increase  of  our  productive  power  during  the  last  hundred  years. 
We  know,  in  fact,  that  while  the  growth  of  population  of  England  has 
been  from  16 J  millions  in  1844  to  26f  millions  in  1888,  showing  thus  an 
increase  of  62  per  cent.,  the  growth  of  national  wealth  (as  testified  by 
schedule  A  of  the  Income  Tax  Act)  has  increased  at  a  twice  speedier  rate; 
it  has  grown  from  221  to  507 J  millions — that  is,  by  130  per  cent.  And 
we  know  that  the  same  increase  of  wealth  has  taken  place  in  France,  where 
population  remains  almost  stationary,  and  that  it  has  gone  on  at  a  still 
speedier  rate  in  the  United  States,  where  population  is  increasing  ev^ry 
year  by  immigration. 

But  the  figures  just  mentioned,  while  showing  the  increase  of  produc- 
tion, give  only  a  faint  idea  of  what  our  production  might  be  under  a  more 
reasonable  economical  organization.  We  know  well  that  the  owners  of 
capital,  while  trying  to  produce  more  wares  with  fewer  "hands,"  are  also 
continually  endeavouring  to  limit  the  production,  in  order  to  sell  at  higher 
prices.  When  the  benefits  of  a  concern  are  going  down,  the  owner  of  the 
capital  limits  the  production,  or  totally  suspends  it,  and  prefers  to  engage 
his  capital  in  foreign  loans  or  shares  of  Patagonian  gold-mines.  Just  now 
there  are  plenty  of  pitmen  in  England  who  ask  for  nothing  better  than  to 
be  permitted  to  extract  coal  and  supply  with  cheap  fuel  the  households 
where  children  are  shivering  before  empty  chimneys.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  weavers  who  ask  for  nothing  better  than  to  weave  stuffs  in  order 
to  replace  the  Whitechapel  rugs  with  linen.     And  so  in   all  branches  of 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  119 

industry.  How  can  we  talk  about  a  want  of  means  of  subsistence  when 
246  blasting  furnaces  and  thousands  of  factories  lie  idle  in  Great  Britain 
alone;  and  when  there  are,  just  now,  thousands  and  thousands  of  unem- 
ployed in  London  alone;  thousands  of  men  who  would  consider  them- 
selves happy  if  they  were  permitted  to  transform  (under  the  guidance  of 
experienced  men)  the  heavy  clay  of  Middlesex  into  a  rich  soil,  and  to  cover 
with  rich  cornfields  and  orchards  the  acres  of  meadow-land  which  now 
yield  only  a  few  pounds'  worth  of  hay  ?  But  they  are  prevented  from 
doing  so  by  the  owners  of  the  land,  of  the  weaving  factory,  and  of  the 
coal-mine,  because  capital  finds  it  more  advantageous  to  supply  the  Khe- 
dive with  harems  and  the  Russian  Government  with  "  strategic  railways" 
and  Krupp  guns.  Of  course  the  maintenance  of  harems  pays ;  it  gives 
ten  or  fifteen  per  cent,  on  the  capital,  while  the  extraction  of .  coal  does  not 
pay — that  is,  it  brings  three  or  five  per  cent., — and  that  is  a  sufficient  rea- 
son for  limiting  the  production  and  permitting  would-be  economists  to 
indulge  in  reproaches  to  the  working  classes  as  to  their  too  rapid  multipli- 
cation ! 

Here  we  have  instances  of  a  direct  and  conscious  limitation  of  produc- 
tion, due  to  the  circumstance  that  the  requisites  for  production  belong  to 
the  few,  and  that  these  few  have  the  right  of  disposing  of  them  at  their 
will,  without  caring  about  the  interests  of  the  community.  But  there  is 
also  the  indirect  and  unconscious  limitation  of  production — that  which  re- 
sults from  squandering  the  produce  of  human  labor  in  luxury,  instead  of 
applying  it  to  a  further  increase  of  production. 

The  last  even  cannot  be  estimated  in  figures,  but  a  walk  through  the 
rich  shops  of  any  city  and  a  glance  at  the  manner  in  which  money  is 
squandered  now,  can  give  an  approximate  idea  of  this  indirect  limitation. 
When  a  rich  man  spends  a  thousand  pounds  for  his  stables,  he  squanders 
five  to  six  thousand  days  of  human  labor,  which  might  be  used,  under  a 
better  social  organization,  for  supplying  with  comfortable  homes  those 
who  are  compelled  to  live  now  in  dens.  And  when  a  lady  spends  a  hun- 
dred pounds  for  her  dress,  we  cannot  but  say  that  she  squanders,  at  least, 
two  years  of  human  labor,  which,  again  under  a  better  organization,  might 
have  supplied  a  hundred  women  with  decent  dresses,  and  much  more  if 
applied  to  a  fui-ther  improvement  of  the  instruments  of  production. 
Preachers  thunder  against  luxury,  because  it  is  shameful  to  squander  money 
for  feeding  and  sheltering  hounds  and  horses,  when  thousands  live  in  the 
East  End  on  sixpence  a  day,  and  other  thousands  have  not  even  their  mis- 
erable sixpence  every  day.  But  the  economist  sees  more  than  that  in  our 
modern  luxury,  when  millions  of  days  of  labor  are  spent  every  year  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  stupid  vanity  of  the  rich,  he  says  that  so  many  millions 
of  workers  have  been  diverted  from  the  manufacture  of  those  useful  instru- 
ments which  would  permit  us  to  decuple  and  centuple  our  present  produc- 
tion of  means  of  subsistence  and  of  requisites  for  comfort. 

In  short,  if  we  take  into  account  both  the  real  and  the  j^otential  increase 
of  our  wealth,  and  consider  both  the  direct  and  indirect  limitation  of  pro- 
duction, which  are  unavoidable  under  our  present  economical  system,  we 
must  recognize  that  the  supposed  ''  pressure  of  population  on  the  means  of 
subsistence  "  is  a  mere  fallacy,  repeated,  like  many  other  fallacies,  without 


120  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANAECHISM. 

even  taking  the  trouble  of  submitting  it  to  a  moment's  criticism.  The 
causes  of  the  present  social  disease  must  be  sought  elsewhere. 

Let  us  take  a  civilized  country.  The  forests  have  been  cleared,  the 
swamps  drained.  Thousands  of  roads  and  railways  intersect  it  in  all  di- 
directions;  the  rivers  have  been  rendered  navigable,  and  the  seaports  are 
of  easy  access.  Canals  connect  the  seas.  The  rocks  have  been  pierced  by 
deep  shafts;  thousands  of  manufactures  cover  the  land.  Science  has 
taught  men  how  to  use  the  energy  of  nature  for  the  satisfaction  for  his 
needs.  Cities  have  slowly  grown  in  the  long  run  of  ages,  and  treasures 
of  science  and  art  are  accumulated  in  these  centres  of  civilization.  But — 
who  has  made  all  these  marvels  ? 

The  combined  efforts  of  scores  of  generations  have  contributed 
towards  the  achievement  of  these  results.  The  forests  have  been  cleared 
centuries  ago;  millions  of  men  have  spent  years  and  years  of  labor  in 
draining  the  swamps,  in  tracing  the  roads,  in  building  the  rail  ways.  Other 
millions  have  built  the  cities  and  created  the  civilization  we  boast  of. 
Thousands  of  inventors,  mostly  unknown,  mostly  dying  in  poverty  and 
neglect,  have  elaborated  the  machinery  in  which  man  admires  his  genius. 
Thousands  of  writers,  philosophers  and  men  of  science,  supported  by 
many  thousands  of  compositors,  printers,  and  other  laborers  whose  name 
is  legion,  have  contributed  in  elaborating  and  spreading  knowledge,  in 
dissipating  errors,  in  creating  the  atmosphere  of  scientific  thought,  with- 
out which  the  marvels  of  our  century  never  would  have  been  brought  to 
life.  The  genius  of  a  Mayer  and  a  Grove,  the  patient  work  of  a  Joule, 
surely  have  done  more  for  giving  a  new  start  to  modern  industry  than  all 
the  capitalists  of  the  world;  but  these  men  of  genius  themselves  are,  in 
their  turn,  the  children  of  industry;  thousands  of  engines  had  to  transform 
heat  into  mechanical  force,  and  mechanical  force  into  sound,  light  and 
electricity — and  they  had  to  do  so  years  long,  every  day,  under  the  eyes 
of  humanity — ^before  some  of  our  contemporaries  proclaimed  the  mechani- 
cal origin  of  heat  and  the  correlation  of  physical  forces,  and  before  we  our- 
selves became  prepared  to  listen  to  them  and  understand  their  teachings, 
Who  knows  for  how  many  decades  we  should  continue  to  be  ignorant  of 
this  theory  which  now  revolutionizes  industry,  were  it  not  for  the  inventive 
powers  and  skill  of  those  unknown  workers  who  have  improved  the  steam- 
engine,  who  brought  all  its  parts  to  perfection,  so  as  to  make  steam  more 
manageable  than  a  horse,  and  to  render  the  use  of  the  engine  nearly 
imiversal  ?  But  the  same  is  true  with  regard  to  each  smallest  part  of  our 
machinery.  In  each  machine,  however  simple,  we  may  read  a  whole 
history — a  long  history  of  sleepless  nights,  of  delusions  and  joys,  of  partial 
inventions  and  partial  improvements  which  brought  it  to  its  present  state. 
Nay,  nearly  each  new  machine  is  a  synthesis,  a  result  of  thousands  of  partial 
inventions  made,  not  only  in  one  special  department  of  machinery,  but  in 
all  departments  of  the  wide  field  of  mechanics. 

Our  cities,  connected  by  roads  and  brought  into  easy  communication 
with  all  peopled  parts  of  the  globe,  are  the  growth  of  centuries  ;  and  each 
house  in  these  cities,  each  factory,  each  shop,  derives  its  value,  its  very 
raison  d'etre  from  the  fact  that  it  is  situated  on  a  spot  of  the  globe  where 
thousands  or  millions  have  gathered  together.  Every  smallest  part  of  the 
immense  whole  which  we  call  the  wealth  of  civilized  nation  derives  its 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.      •  12  L 

value  precisely  from  being  a  part  of  this  whole.  What  would  be  the  value 
of  an  immense  London  shop  or  storehouse  were  it  not  situated  precisely  in 
London,  which  has  become  the  gathering  spot  for  five  millions  of  human 
beings  ?  And  what  the  value  of  our  coal-pits,  our  manufactures,  our  ship 
buildin  yards,  were  it  not  for  the  immense  traffic  which  goes  on  across  the 
seas,  for  the  railways  which  transport  mountains  of  merchandise,  for  the 
cities  which  number  their  inhabitants  by  millions  ?  Who,  is,  then,  the  in- 
dividual who  has  the  right  to  step  forward  and,  laying  his  hands  on  the 
smallest  part  of  this  immense  whole,  to  say,  "I  have  produced  this;  it  be- 
longs to  me  ?"  And  how  can  we  discriminate,  in  this  immense  interwoven 
whole,  the  part  which  the  isolated  individual  may  appropriate  to  himself 
with  the  slightest  approach  to  justice  ?  Houses  and  streets,  canals  and 
railways,  machines  and  works  of  art,  all  these  have  been  created  by  the 
combined  efforts  of  generations  past  and  present,  of  men  living  on  these 
islands  and  men  living  thousands  of  miles  away. 

But  it  has  happened  in  the  long  run  of  ages  that  everything  which 
permits  men  further  to  increase  their  production,  or  even  to  continue  it,  has 
has  been  appropriated  by  the  few.  The  land  which  derives  its  value  pre- 
cisely from  its  being  necessary  for  an  ever-increasing  population  belongs 
to  the  few,  who  may  prevent  the  community  from  cultivating  it.  ,The  coal- 
pits, which  represent  the  labor  of  generations,  and  which  also  derive  their 
value  from  the  wants  of  the  manufactures  and  railroads,  from  the  immense 
trade  carried  on  and  the  density  of  population  (what  is  the  value  of  coal- 
layers  in  Transbaikilia  ?)  belong  again  to  the  few,  who  have  even  the  right 
of  stopping  the  extraction  of  coal  if  they  choose  to  give  another  use  to 
their  capital.  The  lace-weaving  machine,  which  represents  in  its  present 
state  of  perfection,  the  work  of  three  generations  of  Lancashire  weavers, 
belongs  again  to  the  few;  and  if  the  grandsons  of  the  very  same  weaver 
who  invented  the  first  lace-weaving  machine  claim  their  rights  of  bring- 
ing one  of  these  machines  into  motion,  they  will  be  told  '  Hands  off  !  this 
machine  does  not  belong  to  you! '  The  railroads,  which  mostly  would  be 
useless  heaps  of  iron  if  Great  Britain  had  not  its  present  dense  popula- 
tion, its  industry,  trade,  and  traffic,  belong  again  to  the  few — to  a  few 
shareholders,  who  may  even  not  know  where  the  railway  is  situated  which 
brings  them  a  yearly  income  largely  than  that  oi  a  mediaeval  king;  and  if 
the  children  of  those  people  who  died  by  thousands  in  digging  the  tun- 
nels would  gather  and  go — a  ragged  and  starving  crowd — to  ask  bread  or 
work  from  the  shareholders,  they  would  be  met  with  bayonets  and 
bullets. 

Who  is  the  sophist  who  will  dare  to  say  that  such  an  organization  is  just  ? 
But  what  is  unjust  cannot  be  beneficial  for  mankind;  and  it  is  not.  Li 
consequence  of  this  monstrous  organization,  the  son  of  a  workman,  when 
he  is  able  to  work,  finds  no  acre  to  till,  no  machine  to  set  in  motion,  unless 
he  agrees  to  sell  his  labor  for  a  sum  inferior  to  its  real  value.  His  father 
and  grandfather  have  contributed  in  draining  the  field,  or  erecting  the 
factory,  to  the  full  extent  of  their  capacities — and  nobody  can  do  more 
than  that — but  he  comes  into  the  world  more  destitute  than  a  savage.  If 
he  resorts  to  agriculture,  he  will  be  })ennitted  to  cultivate  a  plot  of  land^ 
but  on  the  condition  that  he  gives  up  one  quarter  of  his  crop  to  the  land- 
lord.    If  he  resorts  to  industry%  he  will  be  permitted  to  work,  but  on  the 


122  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

condition  that  out  of  the  thirty  shillings  he  has  produced,  ten  shillings  or 
more  will  be  pocketed  by  the  owner  of  the  machine.  We  cry  against  the 
feudal  baron  who  did  not  permit  anyone  to  settle  on  his  land  otherwise 
than  on  payment  of  one  quarter  of  the  crops  to  the  lord  of  the  manor  ; 
but  we  continue  to  do  as  they  did — we  extend  their  system.  The  forms 
have  changed,  but  the  essence  has  remained  the  same.  And  the  workman 
is  compelled  to  accept  the  feudal  conditions  which  we  call  '  free  contract,' 
because  nowhere  will  he  find  better  conditions.  Everything  has  been  ap- 
propriated by  somebody  ;  he  must  accept  the  bargain  or  starve. 

Owing  to  this  circumstance  our  production  takes  a  wrong  turn.  It 
takes  no  care  of  the  needs  of  the  commimity  ;  its  only  aim  is  to  increase 
the  benefits  of  the  capitalist.  Therefore— the  continuous  fluctuations  of 
industry,  the  crisis  periodically  coming  nearly  every  ten  years,  and  throw- 
ing out  of  employment  several  hundred  thousand  men  who  are  brought  to 
complete  misery,  whose  children  grow  up  in  the  gutter,  ready  to  become 
inmates  of  the  prison  and  workhouse.  The  workmen  being  unable  to 
purchase  with  their  wages  the  riches  they  are  producing,  industry  must 
search  for  markets  elsewhere,  amidst  the  middle  clases  of  other  nations. 
It  must  find  markets,  in  the  East,  in  Africa,  anywhere  ;  it  must  increase 
by  trade,. the  number  of  its  serfs  in  Eygpt,  in  India,  in  the  Congo.  But 
everywhere  it  finds  competitors  in  other  nations  which  rapidly  enter  into 
the  same  line  of  industrial  development.  And  wars,  continuous  wars, 
mast  be  fought  for  the  supremacy  on  the  world-market — wars  for  the 
possession  of  the  East,  wars  for  getting  possession  of  the  seas,  wars  for 
having  the  right  of  imposing  heavy  duties  on  foreign  merchandise.  The 
thunder  of  guns  never  ceases  in  Europe;  whole  generations  are  slaughtered; 
and  we  spend  in  armaments  the  third  of  the  revenues  of  our  States — a 
revenue  raised,  the  poor  know  with  what  difiiculties. 

Education  is  the  privilege  of  the  few.  Not  because  we  can  find  no 
teachers,  not  because  the  workman's  son  and  daughter  are  less  able  to 
receive  instruction,  but  because  one  can  receive  no  reasonable  instruction 
when  at  the  age  of  fifteen  he  descends  into  the  mine,  or  goes  selling  news- 
papers in  the  streets.  Society  becomes  divided  into  two  hostile  camps; 
and  no  freedom  is  possible  under  such  conditions.  While  the  radical  asks 
for  a  further  extension  of  liberty,  the  statesman  answers  him  that  a  further 
increase  of  liberty  would  bring  about  an  uprising  of  the  paupers;  and 
those  political  liberties  which  have  cost  so  dear  are  replaced  by  coercion, 
by  exceptional  laws,  by  military  rule. 

And  finally,  the  injustice  of  our  repartition  of  wealth  exercises  the 
most  deplorable  effect  on  our  morality.  Our  principles  of  morality  say: 
"Love  your  neighbor  as  yourself;"  but  let  a  child  follow  this  principle  and 
take  off  his  coat  to  give  it  to  the  shivering  pauper,  and  his  mother  will 
tell  him  that  he  must  never  understand  the  moral  principles  in  their  right 
sense.  If  he  lives  according  to  them,  he  will  go  barefoot,  without  allevi- 
ating the  misery  round  about  him !  Morality  is  good  on  the  lips,  not  in 
deeds.  Our  preachers  say,  "Who  works,  prays,"  and  everybody  endeavors 
to  make  others  work  for  himself.  They  say,  "  Never  lie!"  and  politics  is  a 
big  lie.  And  we  accustom  ourselves  and  our  children  to  live  under  this 
double-faced  morality,  which  is  hypocrisy,  and  to  conciliate  our  double- 
facedness  by  sophistry.     Hypocrisy  and  sophistry  become  the  very  basis 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  123 

of  our  life.     But  society  caiinot  live  under  such  a  morality.    It  cannot  last 
so;  it  must,  it  will,  be  changed. 

The  question  is  thus  no  more  a  mere  question  of  bread.  It  covers 
the  whole  field  of  human  activity.  But  it  has  at  its  bottom  a  question  of 
social  economy,  and  we  conclude :  The  means  of  production  and  of  satis- 
faction of  all  needs  of  society,  having  been  created  by  the  common  efforts 
of  all,  must  be  at  the  disposal  of  all.  The  private  api^ropriation  of 
requisites  for  production  is  neither  just  nor  beneficial.  All  must  be  placed 
on  the  same  footing  as  producers  and  consumers  of  wealth.  That  would 
be  the  only  way  for  society  to  step  out  of  the  bad  conditions  which  have 
been  created  by  centuries  of  wars  and  oppression.  That  would  be  the 
only  guarantee  for  further  progress  in  a  direction  of  equality  and  freedom, 
which  always  were  the  real  though  outspoken  goal  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER  lY. 
The  Comikg  Anarchy. 


The  views  taken  in  the  preceding  article  as  to  the  combination  of 
efforts  being  the  chief  source  of  our  wealth  explain  why  most  anar- 
chists see  in  communism  the  only  equitable  solution  as  to  the  adequate 
remuneration  of  individual  efforts.  There  was  a  time  when  a  family 
engaged  in  agriculture,  and  supported  by  a  few  domestic  trades,  could 
consider  the  corn  they  raised  and  the  plain  woollen  cloth  they  wove  as 
productions  of  their  own  and  nobody  else's  labor.  Even  then  such  a 
view  was  not  quite  correct  ;  there  were  forests  cleared  and  roads  built 
by  common  efforts  ;  and  even  then  the  family  had  continually  to  apply 
for  communal  help,  as  it  is  still  the  case  in  so  many  village  communities. 
But  now,  under  the  extremely  interwoven  state  of  industry,  of  which 
each  branch  supports  all  others,  such  an  individualistic  view  can  be 
held  no  more.  It  the  iron  trade  and  the  cotton  industry  of  this  coun- 
try have  reached  so  high  a  degree  of  development,  they  have  done  so 
owing  to  the  parallel  growth  of  thousands  of  other  industries,  great  and 
small ;  to  the  extension  of  the  railway  system  ;  to  an  increase  of  knowl- 
edge among  both  the  skilled  engineers  and  the  mass  of  the  workmen  ; 
to  a  certain  training  in  organization  slowly  developed  among  British 
producers  ;  and,  above  all,  to  the  world-trade  which  has  itself  grown 
up,  thanks  to  works  executed  thousands  of  miles  away.  The  Italians 
who  died  from  cholera  in  digging  the  Suez  Canal,  or  from  *' tunnel- 
disease  "  in  the  St.  Gothard  Tunnel,  have  contributed  as  much  towards 
the  enrichment  of  this  country  as  the  British  girl  who  is  prematurely 
growing  old  in  serving  a  machine  at  Mnnchester  ;  and  this  girl  as  much 
as  the  engineer  who  made  a  labor-saving  improvement  in  our  machin- 
ery. How  can  we  pretend  to  estimate  the  exact  part  of  each  of  them 
in  the  riches  accumulated  around  us? 

We  may  admire  the  inventive  genius  or  the  organizing  capacities 


224  "^^^    PLILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

of  ail  iron  lord  ;  but  we  must  recognize  that  all  his  genius  and  energy 
would  not  realize  one-tenth  of  what  they  realize  here  if  they  were  spent 
in  dealing  with  Mongolian  shepherds  or  Siberian  peasants  instead  of 
British  workmen,  British  engineers,  and  trustworthy  managers.  An 
English  millionaire  who  succeeded  in  giving  a  powerful  impulse  to  a 
branch  of  home  industry  was  asked  the  other  day  what  were,  in  his 
opinion,  the  real  causes  of  his  success?  His  answer  was :^*- 1  always 
sought  out  the  right  man  for  a  given  branch  of  the  concern,  and  I  left 
him  full  independence — maintaining,  of  course,  for  myself  the  general 
supervision. 's  ''Did  you  never  fail  to  find  such  men?'^  was  the  next 
question.  "Never."  ''But  in  the  new  branches  which  you  introduced 
you  wanted  a  number  of  new  inventions."  "  No  doubt ;  we  spent 
thousands  in  buying  patents."  This  little  colloquy  sums  up,  in  my 
opinion,  the  real  case  of  those  industrial  undertakings  which  are  quoted 
by  the  advocates  of  "  an  adequate  remuneration  of  individual  efforts"  in 
the  shape  of  millions  bestowed  on  the  managers  of  prosperous  industries. 
It  shows  in  how  far  the  efforts  are  really  "  individual.  '  Leaving  aside 
the  thousand  conditions  which  sometimes  permit  a  man  to  show,  and 
sometimes  prevent  him  from  showing,  his  capacities  to  their  full  ex- 
tent, it  might  be  asked  in  how  far  the  same  capacities  could  bring  out 
the  same  results,  if  the  very  same  employer  could  find  no  trustworthy 
managers  and  no  skilled  workmen,  and  if  hundreds  of  inventions  were 
not  stimulated  by  the  mechanical  turn  of  mind  of  so*  many  inhabitants 
of  this  country.  British  industry  is  the  work  of  the  British  nation — 
nay,  of  Europe  and  India  taken  together — not  of  separate  individuals. 

While  holding  this  synthetic  view  on  production^  the  anarchist 
cannot  consider,  like  the  collectivists,  that  a  remuneration  which  would 
be  proportionate  to  the  hours  of  labor  spent  by  each  person  in  the  pro- 
duction of  riches  may  be  an  ideal,  or  even  an  approach  to  an  ideal,  soci- 
ety. Without  entering  here  into  a  discussion  as  to  how  far  the  exchange 
value  of  each  merchandise  is  really  measured  now  by  the  amount  of 
labor  necessary  for  its  production — ti  separate  study  must  be  devoted  to 
the  subject — we  must  say  that  the  collectivist  ideal  seems  to  us  merely 
unrealizable  in  a  society  which  would  be  brought  to  consider  the  neces- 
saries for  production  as  a  common  property.  Such  a  society  w^ould  be 
compelled  to  abandon  the  wage-system  altogether.  It  appears  impossi- 
ble that  the  mitigated  individualism  of  the  collectivist  school  could 
co-exist  with  the  partial  communism  implied  by  holding  land  and  mr'- 
chinery  in  common — unless  imposed  by  a  powerful  government,  much 
more  powerful  than  all  those  of  our  own  times.  The  present  wage- 
system  has  grown  up  from  the  appropriation  of  the  necessaries  for  pro- 
duction by  the  few  ;  it  was  a  necessary  condition  for  the  growth  of  the 
present  capitalist  production  ;  and  it  cannot  outlive  it,  even  if  an  at- 
tempt be  made  to  pay  the  worker  the  full  value  of  his  produce,  and 
money  be  substituted  by  hours  of  labor  checks.  Common  possession 
of  the  necessaries  for  production  implies  the  common  enjoyment  of  the 
fruits  of  the  common  production;  and  we  consider  that  an  equitable 
organization  of  society  can  only  arise  when  every  wage-system  is  aban- 
doned, and  when  everybody,  contributing  for  the  common  well-being 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANARCHISM.  125 

to  the  fuH  extent  of  his  capacities,  shall  enjoy  also  from  the  common 
stock  of  society  to  the  fullest  possible  extent  or  his  needs. 

We  maintain,  moreover,  not  only  that  communism  is  a  desirable 
state  of  society,  but  that  the  growing  tendency  of  modern  society  is 
precisely  towards  communism — free  communism — notwithstanding  the 
seemingly  contradictory  growth  of  individualism.  In  the  growth  of 
individualism  (especially  during  the  last  three  centuries)  we  merely  see 
the  endeavors  of  the  individual  towards  emancipating  himself  from  the 
steadily  growing  powers  of  capital  and  state,  but  side  by  side  with  this 
growth  we  see  also,  throughout  history  up  to  our  own  times,  the  latent 
struggle  of  the  producers  of  wealth  for  maintaining  the  partial  commu- 
nism of  old,  as  well  as  for  reintroducing  communist  principles  in  a  new 
shape,  as  soon  as  favorable  conditions  permit  it.  As  soon  as  the  com- 
munes of  the  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  centuries  were  enabled  to 
start  their  own  independent  life,  they  gave  a  wide  extension  to  work  in 
common,  to  trade  in  common,  and  to  a  partial  consumption  in  common. 
All  this  has  disappeared;  but  the  rural  commune  fights  a  hard  struggle  to 
maintain  its  old  features,  and  it  succeeds  in  maintaining  them  in  many 
places  of  E  istern  Europe,  Switzerland,  and  even  France  and  Germany; 
while  new  organizations,  based  on  the  same  principles,  never  fail  to  grow 
up  as  soon  as  it  is  possible.  Notwithstanding  the  egotistic  turn  given 
to  the  public  mind  by  the  merchant-production  of  our  century,  the 
communist  tendency  is  continually  reasserting  itself  and  trying  to  make 
its  way  into  public  life.  The  penny  bridge  disappears  before  the  public 
bridge;  so  also  the  road  which  formerly  had  to  be  paid  for  its  use.  The 
same  spirit  pervades  thousands  of  other  institutions.  Museums,  free 
libraries,  and  free  public  schools;  parks  and  pleasure  grounds;  paved 
and  lighted  streets,  free  for  every  body's  use;  water  supplied  to  private 
dwellings,  with  a  growing  tendency  towards  disregarding  the  exact 
amount  of  it  used  by  the  individual;  tramways  and  railways  which 
have  already  begun  to  introduce  the  season  ticket  or  the  uniiorm  tax, 
and  will  surely  go  much  further  on  this  line  when  they  are  no  longer 
private  property;  all  these  are  tokens  showing  in  which  direction  further 
progress  is  to  be  expected. 

It  is  in  putting  the  wants  of  the  individual  above  the  valuation  of 
the  services  he  has  rendered,  or  might  render,  to  society;  it  is  in  consid- 
ering society  as  a  whole,  so  intimately  'connected  that  a  service  rendered 
to  any  individual  is  a  service  rendered  to  the  whole  society.  The  libra- 
rian of  the  l^ritish  Museum  does  not  ask  the  reader  what  have  been  his 
previous  services  to  society,  he  simply  gives  him  the  books  he  requires; 
and  for  a  uniform  fee,  a  scientific  society  leaves  its  gardens  and  muse- 
ums at  the  free  disposal  of  each  member.  The  crew  of  a  life-boat  do 
not  ask  whether  the  men  of  a  distressed  ship  are  entitled  to  be  rescued 
at  a  risk  of  life;  and  the  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  do  not  inquire  what  the 
released  prisoner  is  worth.  Here  are  men  in  need  of  a  service;  they 
are  fellotr  men,  and  no  further  rights  are  required.  And  if  this  very 
city,  so  egotistic  to-day,  be  visited  by  a  ])ublic  calamity — let  it  be  be- 
sieged, for  example,  like  Paris  in  1871,  and  experience  during  the  siege 
a  want  of  food — this  very  same  city  would  be  unanimous  in  proclaim- 


226  "^^^    PHILOSOPHY   OF   ANARCHISM. 

ing  that  the  first  needs  to  be  satisfied  are  those  of  the  children  and  old, 
no  matter  what  services  they  may  render  or  have  rendered  to  society. 
And  it  would  take  care  of  the  active  defenders  of  the  city,  whatevei 
the  degrees  of  gallantry  displayed  by  each  of  them.  But,  this  ten- 
dency already  existing,  nobody  will  deny,  1  suppose,  that,  in  proportion 
as  humanity  is  relieved  from  its  hard  struggle  for  life,  the  same  tendency 
will  grow  stronger.  If  our  productive  powers  be  fully  applied  for  in- 
creasing the  stock  of  the  staple  necessities  for  life;  if  a  modification  of 
the  present  conditions  of  property  increased  the  number  of  producers 
by  all  those  who  are  not  producers  of  wealth  now;  and  if  manual  labor 
reconquered  its  place  of  honor  in  society — all  this  decuplating  our  pro- 
duction and  rendering  labor  easier  and  more  attractive — the  communist 
tendencies  already  existing  would  immediately  enlarge  their  sphere  of 
application. 

Taking  all  that  into  account,  and  still  more  the  practical  aspects 
of  the  question  as  to  how  private  property  might  iDecome  common 
property,  most  of  the  anarchists  maintaij;i  that  the  very  next  step  to 
be  made  by  society,  as  soon  as  the  present  regime  of  property  under- 
goes a  modification,  will  be  in  a  communist  sense.  We  are  communists. 
But  our  communism  is  not  that  of  either  the  Phalanstere  or  the 
authoritarian  school:  it  is  anarchist  communism,  communism  with- 
out government,  free  communism.  It  is  a  synthesis  of  the  two 
chief  aims  prosecuted  by  humanity  since  the  dawn  of  its  history — 
economical  freedom  and  political  freedom. 

I  have  already  said  that  anarchy  means  no-government.  We 
know  well  that  the  word  '^  anarchy "  is  also  used  in  the  current  lan- 
guage as  synonymous  with  disorder.  But  that  meaning  of  "anarchy,'"' 
being  a  derived  one,  implies  at  least  two  suppositions.  It  implies, 
first,  that  wherever  there  is  no  government  there  is  disorder;  and  it 
implies,  moreover,  that  order,  due  to  a  strong  government  and  a  strong 
police,  is  always  beneficial.  Both  implications,  however,  are  anything 
but  proved.  There  is  plenty  of  order — we  should  say,  of  harmony — in 
many  branches  of  human  activity  where  the  government,  happily,  does 
not  interfere.  As  to  the  beneficial  effects  of  order,  the  kind  of  order 
that  reigned  at  Naples  under  the  Bourbons  surely  was  not  preferable 
to  some  disorder  started  by  Garibaldi;  while  the  protestants  of  .this 
country  will  probably  say  that  the  good  deal  of  dfsordermade  by  Luther 
was  preferable,  at  any  rate,  to  the  order  which  reigned  under  the  Pope. 
As  to  the  proverbial  "  order  ^'  which  was  once  "restored  at  Warsaw," 
there  are,  I  suppose,  no'  two  opinions  about  it.  While  all  agree  that 
harmony  is  always  desirable,  there  is  no  such  unanimity  about  order, 
and  still  less  about  the  "order"  which  is  supposed  to  reign  in  our  modern 
societies;  so  that  we  have  no  objection  whatever  to  the  use  of  the  word 
*'anarchy"  as  a  negation  of  what  has  been  often  described  as  order. 

By  taking  for  our  watchword  anarchy,  in  its  sense  of  no-govern- 
ment, we  intend  to  express  a  pronounced  tendency  of  human  society. 
In  history  we  see  that  precisely  those  epochs  when  small  parts  of  human- 
ity broke  down  the  power  of  their  rulers  and  reassumed  their  freedom 
were  epochs  of  the  greatest  progress,  economical  and  intellectual.     Be 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  X27 

it  the  growth  of  the  free  cities,  whose  iiiirivailed  monuments — free  work 
of  free  associations  of  workers — sti.l  testify  to  the  revival  to  the  mind  and 
of  the  well-being  of  the  citizen;  be  it  the  great  movement  which  gave  birth 
to  the  Reformation — those  epochs  witnessed  the  greatest  progress  when 
the  individual  recovered  some  part  of  his  freedom.  And  if  we  carefully 
watch  the  present  development  of  civilized  nations,  we  cannot  fail  to 
discover  in  it  a  marked  and  ever-growing  movement  towards  limiting 
moro  and  more  the  sphere  of  action  of  government,  so  as  to  leave  more 
and  more  liberty  to  the  initiative  of  the  individual.  After  having  tried 
all  kinds  of  government,  and  endeavored  to  solve  the  insoluble  problem 
of  having  a  government  "  which  might  compel  the  individual  to  obe- 
dience, without  escaping  itself  from  obedience  to  collectivity,"  humanity 
is  trying  now  to  free  itself  from  the  bonds  of  any  government  whatever, 
and  to  respond  to  its  needs  of  organization  by  the  free  understanding 
between  individuals  prosecuting  the  same  common  aims.  Home  rule 
even  for  the  smallest  territorial  unit  or  a  group,  becomes  a  growing 
need;  free  agreement  is  becoming  a  substitute  for  law;  and  free  co- 
operation a  substitute  for  governmental  guardianship.  One  after  the 
other  those  functions  which  were  considered  as  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment during  the  last  two  centuries  are  disputed;  society  moves  better 
the  less  it  is  governed.  And  the  more  we  study  the  advance  made  in 
this  direction,  as  well  as  the  inadequacy  of  governments  to  fullfil  the 
expectations  laid  in  them,  the  more  we  are  bound  to  .conclude  that 
humanity,  by  steadily  limiting  the  functions  of  government,  is  march- 
ing towards  reducing  them  finally  to  nil;  and  we  already  ^ee  a  state  of 
society  where  the  liberty  of  the  individual  will  be  limited  by  no  laws, 
no  bonds — by  nothing  else  but  his  own  social  habits  and  the  necessity, 
which  everyone  feels,  of  finding  co-operation,  support,  and  sympathy 
among  his  neighbors. 

Of  course,  the  no-government  ethics  will  meet  with  at  least  as 
many  objections  as  the  no-capital  economics.  Our  minds  have  been 
so  nurtured  in  prejudices  as  to  the  providential  functions  of  govern- 
ment that  anarchist  ideas  must  be  received  with  distrust.  Our 
whole  education,  since  childhood  up  to  the  grave,  nurtures  the  belief  in 
the  necessity  of  a  government  and  its  beneficial  effects.  Systems  of 
philosophy  have  been  elaborated  to  support  this  view;  history  has  been 
written  from  this  standpoint;  theories  of  law  have  been  circulated  and 
taught  for  the  same  purpose.  All  politics  are  based  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, each  politician  saying  to  people  he  wants  to  support  him:  "Give 
me  the  governmental  power;  I  will,  I  can,  relieve  you  from  the  hardships 
of  your  present  life."  All  our  education  is  permeated  with  the  same 
teachings.  We  may  open  any  book  of  sociology,  history,  law,  or  ethics; 
everywhere  we  find  government,  its  organization,  its  deeds,  playing  so 
prominent  a  part  that  we  grow  accustomed  to  suppose  that  the  State 
and  the  political  men  are  everything;  that  there  is  nothing  behind  the 
big  statesmen.  The  same  teachings  are  daily  repeated  in  the  press. 
Whole  columns  are  filled  up  with  minutest  records  of  parliamentary 
debates,  of  movements  of  political  persons;  and,  while  reading  these 
columns,  we  too  often  forget  that  there  is  an  immense  body  of  men — 


128 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM. 


mankind,  in  fact— growing  and  dying,  living  in  happiness  or  sorrow, 
laboring  and  consuming,  thinking  and  creating,  besides  those  few  men 
whose  importance  has  been  swollen  up  as  to  overshadow  humanity. 

And  yet,  if  we  revert  from  the  printed  matter  to  our  real  life, 
and  cast  a  broad  glance  on  society  as  it  is,  we  are  struck  with  the 
infinitesimiil  part  played  by  government  in  our  life.  Millions  of 
human  beings  live  and  die  without  having  had  anything  to  do  with 
government.  Every  day  millions  of  transactions  are  made  without 
the  slightest  interference  of  government;  and  those  who  enter  into 
agreements  have  not  the  slightest  intention  of  breaking  bargains. 
Nay,  those  agreements  which  are  not  protected  by  government 
(those  of  the  exchange,  or  card  debts)  are  perhaps  better  kept  than 
any  others.  The  simple  habit  of  keeping  his  word,  the  desire  of  not 
losing  confidence,  are  quite  sufiicient  in  the  immense  overwhelming 
majority  of  cases  to  enforce  the  keeping  of  agreements.  Of  course, 
it  may  be  said  that  there  is  still  the  government  which  might 
enforce  them  if  necessary.  But  not  to  speak  of  the  numberless  cases 
which  even  could  not  be  brought  before  a  court,  everybody  who  has  the 
slightest  acquaintance  with  trade  will  undoubtedly  confirm  the  assertion 
that,  if  there  were  not  so  strong  a  feeling  of  honor  to  keep  agreements, 
trade  itself  would  become  utterly  impossible.  Even  those  merchants 
and  manufacturers  who  feel  not  the  slightest  remorse  when  poisoning 
their  customers  with  all  kind  of  abominable  drugs,  duly  labelled,  even 
they  also  keep  their  commercial  agreements.  But,  if  such  a  relative 
morality  as  commercial  honesty  exists  now,  under  the  present  conditions, 
when  enrichment  is  the  chief  motive,  the  same  feeling  will  further 
develop  very  fast  as  soon  as  robbing  somebody  of  the  fruits  of  his  labor 
is  no  longer  the  economical  basis  of  our  life. 

Another  striking  feature  of  our  century  tells  in  favor  of  the  same 
no-government  tendency.  It  is  the  steady  enlargement  of  the  field 
covered  by  private  initiative,  and  the  [recent  growth  of  large  organi- 
zations resulting  merely  and  simply  from  free  agreement.  The  railway 
net  of  Europe — a  confederation  of  so  many  scores  of  separate  societies — 
and  the  direct  transport  of  passengers  and  merchandise  over  so  many 
lines  which  were  built  independently  and  federated  together,  without 
even  so  much  as  a  central  board  of  European  railways,  are  a  most 
striking  instance  of  what  is  already  done  by  mere  agreement.  If  fifty 
years  ago  somebody  had  predicted  that  railways  built  by  so  many 
separate  companies  finally  would  constitute  so  perfect  a  net  as  they  do 
to-day,  he  surely  would  have  been  treated  as  a  fool.  It  would  have  been 
urged  that  so  many  companies,  prosecuting  their  own  interests,  would 
never  agree  without  an  international  board  of  railways,  supported  by 
an  international  convention  of  the  European  States,  and  endow^ed  witn 
governmental  powers.  But  no  such  board  was  resorted  to,  and  the 
agreement  came  nevertheless.  The  Dutch  Beiirden  extending  now  their 
organizations  over  the  rivers  of  Germany,  and  even  to  the  shipping  trade 
of  the  Baltic;  the  numberless  amalgamated  manufacturers'  associations, 
and  the  syndicats  of  France,  are  so  many  instances  in  point.  If  it  be 
art^ued  that  many  of  these  organizations  are  organizations  for  exrloita^ 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  121) 

tion,  it  would  prove  nothing,  because,  if  men  prosecuting  their  own 
egotistic,  often  very  narrow,  interests  can  agree  together,  better  inspired 
men,  compelled  to  be  more  closely  connected  with  other  groups,  will 
necessarily  agree  still  easier  and  still  better. 

But  there  also  is  no  lack  of  free  organizations  for  nobler  pursuits. 
One  of  the  noblest  achievements  of  our  century  is  undoubtedly  the  Life- 
boat Association.  Since  its  first  humble  start,  which  we  all  remember, 
it  has  saved  no  less  than  82,000  human  lives.  It  makes  appeal  to  the 
noblest  instincts  of  man;  its  activity  is  entirely  dependent  upon  devo- 
tion to  the  common  cause;  while  its  internal  organization  is  entirely 
based  upon  the  independence  of  the  local  committees.  The  Hospitals 
Association  and  hundreds  of  like  organizations,  operating  upon  a  large 
-scale  and  covering  each  a  wide  field,  may  also  be  mentioned  under  this 
head.  But,  while  we  know  everything  about  governments  and  their 
deeds  what  do  we  know  about  the  results  achieved  by  free  co-operation? 
Thousands  of  volumes  have  been  written  to  record  the  acts  of  govern- 
ments; the  most  trifling  amelioration  due  to  law  has  been  recorded;  its 
good  effects  have  been  exaggerated,  its  bad  effects  passed  by  in  silence. 
But  where  is  the  book  recording  what  has  been  achieved  by  free  co-oper- 
ation of  well-inspired  men? — At  the  same  time,  hundreds  of  societies 
are  constituted  every  day  for  the  satisfaction  of  some  of  the  infinitely 
varied  needs  of  civilized  men.  We  have  societies  for  all  possible  kinds 
of  studies — some  of  them  embracing  the  whole  field  of  natural  science, 
others  limited  to  a  small  special  branch ;  societies  for  gymnastics,  for 
shorthand-writing,  for  the  study  of  a  separate  author,  for  games,  and 
all  kinds  of  sport,  for  forwarding  the  science  of  maintaining  life,  and 
for  favoring  the  knowledge  of  how  to  destroy  it;  philosophical  and  in- 
dustrial, artistic  and  anti-artistic ;  for  serious  work  and  for  mere  amuse- 
ment— in  short,  there  is  not  a  single  direction  in  which  men  would  ex- 
ercise their  faculties  without  combining  together  for  the  prosecution  of 
some  common  aim.  Every  day  new  societies  are  formed,  while  every 
year  the  old  ones  aggregate  together  into  larger  units,  federate  across 
the  national  frontiers,  and  co-operate  in  some  common  work. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  these  numberless  free  growths  is  that 
they  continually  encroach  upon  what  was  formerly  the  domain  of  the 
State  or  the  Municipality.  A  householder  in  a  Swiss  village  on  the 
banks  of  Lake  Leman  belongs  now  to,  at  least,  a  dozen  different  societies 
which  supply  him  with  what  is  considered  elsewhere  as  a  function  of  the 
municipal  government.  Free  federation  of  independent  communes  for 
temporary  or  permanent  purposes  lies  at  the  very  bottom  of  Swiss  life, 
and  to  these  federations  many  a  part  of  Switzerland  is  indebted  for  its 
roads  and  foimtains,  its  rich  vineyards,  well-kept  forests,  and  meadows 
which  the  foreigner  admires.  And  beside  these  small  societies,  substi- 
tuting themselves  for  the  State  within  some  limited  Sf)here,  do  we  not 
see  other  societies  doing  the  same  on  a  much  wider  scale?  Each  Ger- 
man Burrjer  is  proud  of  the  German  army,  but  few  of  them  know  how 
much  it  borrows  of  its  force  from  the  numberless  private  societies  for 
military  studies,  exercise,  and  games;  and  how  few  are  those  who  un- 
derstand that  their  armv  would  become  au  incoherent  mass  of  men  the 


;130  TllK    PHILOSOPHY    OK    AXARCHISM. 

clay  that  each  soldier  was  no  longer  inspired  by  the  feelings  which  in- 
spire him  now  ?  In  this  country,  even  the  task  of  defending  the  terri- 
tory— that  is,  the  chief,  the  great  function  of  the  State — has  been  un- 
dertaken by  an  army  of  volunteers,  and  this  army  surely  might  stand 
against  any  army  of  slaves  obeying  a  military  despot.  More  than  that: 
a  private  society  for  the  defense  of  the  coasts  of  England  has  been  se- 
riously spoken  of.  Let  it  only  come  into  life,  and  surely  it  will  be  a 
more  effective  weapon  for  self-defense  than  the  iron  clads  of  the  navy. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  societies,  however,  which  has  recently 
arisen  is  undoubtedly  the  Red  Cross  Society.  To  slaughter  men  on  the 
battle  fields,  that  remains  the  duty  of  the  State;  but  these  very  States 
recognize  themselves  unable  to  take  care  of  their  own  wounded,  they 
abandon  the  task,  to  a  great  extent,  to  private  initiative.  AVhat  a  del- 
uge of  mockeries  would  not  have  been  cast  over  the  poor ''  Utopist''  who 
should  ha\e  dared  to  say  twenty-five  years  ago  that  the  care  of  the 
wounded  might  be  left  to  private  societies  !  "Nobody  would  go  in  the 
dangerous  places  !  all  hospitals  would  gather  where  there  was  no  need  of 
them  !  national  rivalries  would  result  in  the  poor  soldiers  dying  without 
any  help,  and  so  on," — such  would  have  been  the  outcry.  The  .war  of 
1871  has  shown  how  perspicacious  those  prophets  are  who  never  believe 
in  human  intelligence,  devotion,  and  good  sense. 

These  facts — so  numerous  and  so  customary  that  we  pass  by  with- 
out even  noticing  them — are,  in  our  opinion,  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent features  of  the  second  half  of  our  century.  The  just  mentioned 
organisms  grew  up  so  naturally;  they  so  rapidly  extended  and  so  easily 
aggregated  together;  they  are  such  unavoidable  outgrowths  of  the  mul- 
tiplication of  needs  of  the  civilized  man,  and  they  so  well  replace  State- 
interference,  that  we  must  recognize  in  them  a  growing  factor  of  our 
life.  Modern  progress  is  really  towards  the  free  aggregation  of  free 
individuals  so  as  to  supplant  government  in  all  those  functions  which 
formerly  were   entrusted  to  it,  and  which  it  mostly  performed  so  badly. 

As  to  parliamentary  rule,  and  representative  government  altogether 
they  are  rapidly  falling  into  decay.  The  few  philosophers  who  have 
already  shown  their  defects  have  only  timidly  summed  up  the  growing 
public  discontent.  It  is  becoming  evident  that  it  is  merely  stupid  to 
elect  a  few  men,  and  to  entrust  them  with  the  task  of  making  laws  on 
all  possible  subjects,  of  which  subjects  most  of  them  are  utterly  igno- 
rant. It  is  becoming  understood  that  majority  rule  is  as  effective  as 
any  other  kind  of  rule;  and  humanity  searches,  and  finds,  new 
channels  for  resolving  the  pending  questions.  The  Postal  Union 
did  not  elect  an  international  postal  parliament  in  order  to  make  laws 
f^r  all  postal  organ  zations  adherent  to  the  Union.  The  railways  of  Eu- 
rope did  not  elect  an  international  railway  parliament  in  order  to  regu- 
late the  march  of  the  trains  and  the  repartition  of  the  income  of  in- 
ternational traffic;  and  the  meteorological  and  geological  societies  of 
Europe  did  not  elect  either  meteorological  or  geological  parliaments  for 
scheming  polar  stations,  or  for  establishing  a  uniform  subdivision  of 
geological  formations  and  a  uniform  coloration  of  geological  maps. 
They  proceeded  by  means  of  agreements.     To  agree  together   they  re- 


Tin:  pmi,()s(irHY  of  anarchism.  131 

sorted  to  congresses;  but,  while  sending  delegate  ;  to  their  congresses, 
they  did  not  elect  M.  P.'s  bo)is  a  tout /aire;  the/  did  not  say  to  them, 
"Vote  about  everything  you  like — we  shall  obey."  1  hey  put  questions 
and  discussed  them  first  themselves;  then  they  sent  delegates  acquainted^ 
with  special  questions  to  be  discussed  at  the  congress,  and  they  sent  del- 
ef/afes — not  rulers.  Their  delegates  returned  from  the  congress  with 
uo  htics  in  their  pockets,  but  with  proposals  of  acjreements.  Such  is  the 
way  assumed  now  (the  very  old  way,  too)  for  dealing  with  questions 
of  public  interest^ — not  the  way  of  law-making  by  means  of  a  repre- 
sentative government.  Representative  government  has  i  ccomplished  its 
historical  mission;  it  has  given  a  mortal  blow  to  court-rule;  and  by  its 
debates  it  has  awakened  public  interest  in  public  questions.  But  to  see 
in  it  the  government  of  the  future  socialist  society,  is  to  commit  a 
gross  error.  Each  economical  phase  of  life  implies  its  own  political 
phase;  and  it  is  impossible  to  touch  the  very  bases  of  the  present  eco- 
nomical life—private  property— without  a  corresponding  change  in  the 
very  bases  of  the  political  organization.  Life  already  shows  in  which 
direction  the  change  wdll  be  made.  Not  in  increasing  the  powers  of  the 
State,  but  in  resorting  to  free  organizatioi  and  free  federation  in  all 
those  branches  which  are  now  considered  as  attributions  of  the  State. 

The  objections  to  the  above  may  be  easily  foreseen.  It  will  be 
said  of  course:  ''But  what  is  to  be  done  wit'.i  those  who  do  not  keep 
their  agreements?  What  with  those  who  are  not  inclined  to  work? 
What  with  those  who  would  prefer  breaking  the  written  laws  of  soci^ 
ety,  or,  in  the  anarchist  hypothesis,  its  unwritten  customs?  Anarchy 
may  be  good  for  a  higher  humanity,  not  for  the  men  of  our  own  times." 

First  of  all  there  are  two  kinds  of  agreements  ;  there  is  the  free 
one  which  is  entered  upon  by  free  coiisent,  as  a  free  choice  between  dif- 
ferent courses  equally  open  before  each  of  the  agreeing  parties;  and  there 
is  the  enforced  agreement,  imposed  by  one  party  upon  the  other,  and 
accepted  by  the  latter  from  sheer  necessity;  in  fact,  it  is  no  agreement 
at  all;  it  is  a  mere  submission  to  necessity.  Unhappily,  the  great  bulk 
of  what  are  now  described  as  agreements  belong  to  the  latter  category, 
When  a  workman  sells  his  labor  to  an  employer,  and  knows  perfectly 
well  that  some  part  of  the  value  of  his  produce  will  be  unjustly  taken 
by  the  employer;  when  he  sells  it  without  even  the  slightest  guarantee 
of  being  employed  so  much  as  six  consecutive  months,  and  he  is  com- 
pelled to  do  so  because  he  and  his  family  would  otherwise  starve 
next  week — it  is  a  sad  mockery  to  call  that  a  free  contract.  Modern 
economists  may  call  it  free,  but  the  father  of  political  economy — Adam 
Smith — w^as  never  guilty  of  such  a  misrepresentation.  As  long  as 
three-quarters  of  humanity  are  compelled  to  enter  into  agreements  of 
that  description,  force  is,  of  course,  necessary,  both  to  enforce  the  sup- 
posed agreements  and  to  maintain  such  a  state  of  things.  Force — and 
a  good  deal  of  force — is  necessary  for  preventing  the  laborers  from  tak- 
ing possession  of  what  they  consider  unjustly  appropriated  by  the  few; 
and  force  is  necessary  for  always  bringing  new  "uncivilized  nations  un- 
der the  same  conditions.  The  Spencerian  no-force  party  perfectly  well 
understand  that;  and  while  they  advocate  no  force  for  changing  the  ex- 


232  THK    I'HILOSOI'ltV    OF    ANARCHISM. 

isting  conditions,  tliej  advocate  still  more  force  than  is  now  used  for 
maintaining  them.  As  to  anarch}^,  it  is  obviously  as  incompatible  with 
plutocracy  as  with  any  kind  of  cracy. 

But  we  do  not  see  the  necessity  of  force  for  enforcing  agreements 
freely  entered  upon.  We  never  heard  of  a  penalty  imposed  on  a  man 
who  belonged  to  the  crew  of  a  lifeboat  and  at  a  given  moment  preferred 
to  abandon  the  association.  All  that  his  comrades  would  do  with  him, 
if  he  were  guilty  of  a  gross  neglect,  would  be  probably  to  refuse  further 
to  do  anything  with  him.  Nor  did  we  hear  of  fines  imposed  on  a  con- 
tributor of  Mr.  Murray's  Dictionary  for  a  delay  in  his  work,  or  of 
gendarmes  driving  the  volunteers  of  Garibaldi  to  the  battle-fields.  Free 
agreements  need  not  be  enforced. 

As  to  the  so-often  repeated  objection  that  nobody  would  labor  if 
he  were  not  compelled  to  do  so  by  sheer  necessity,  we  heard  enough  of 
it  before  the  emancipation  of  slaves  in  America,  as  well  as  before  the 
emancipation  of  serfs  in  Russia;  and  we  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
appreciating  it  at  its  just  value.  So  we  shall  not  try  to  convince  those 
who  can  be  convinced  only  by  accomplished  facts.  As  to  those  who 
reason,  they  ought  to  know  that,  if  it  really  was  so  with  some  parts  of 
humanity  at  its  lowest  stages — and  yet,  what  do  we  know  about  it  ? — or 
if  it  is  so  with  some  small  communities,  or  separate  individuals,  brought 
to  sheer  despair  by  unsuccesses  in  their  struggle  against  unfavorable 
conditions,  it  is  not  so  with  the  bulk  of  the  civilized  nations.  With  us, 
work  is  a  habit,  and  idleness  an  artificial  growth.  Of  course,  when  to 
be  a  manual  worker  means  to  be  compelled  to  work  all  the  life  long  for 
ten  hours  a  day,  and  often  more,  at  producinj^^  some  part  of  something 
— a  pin's  head,  for  instance;  when  it  means  to  be  paid  wages  on  which 
a  family  can  live  only  on  the  condition  of  the  strictest  limitation  of  all 
its  needs;  when  it  means  to  be  always  under  the  menace  of  being  thrown 
to-morrow  out  of  employment — and  we  know  how  frequent  are  the 
industrial  crises,  and  what  a  misery  they  imply;  when  it  means,  in  a 
very  great  number  of  cases,  premature  death  in  a  paupers'  hospital,  if 
not  in  the  workhouse;  when  to  be  a  manual  worker  signifies  to  wear  all 
life  long  a  stamp  of  inferiority  in  the  eyes  of  those  very  people  who 
live  on  the  work  of  their  '^  hands;''' when  it  always  means  the  renounce- 
ment of  all  those  higher  enjoyments  that  science  and  art  give  to  man — 
oh,  then  there  is  no  wonder  that  everybody — the  manual  worker  as  well 
— has  but  one  dream :  that  of  rising  to  a  condition  where  others  would  work 
for  him.  When  I  see  writers  who  boast  that  thoy  are  the  workers,  and 
write  that  the  manual  workers  are  an  inferior  race  of  lazy  and  improv- 
ident fellows,  I  am  inclined  to  ask  them.  Who,  then,  has  made  all  you 
see  round  about  you:  the  houses  you  live  in,  the  chairs,  the  carpets,  the 
streets  you  enjoy,  the  clothes  you  wear?  Who  built  the  universities 
where  you  were  taught,  and  who  provided  you  with  food  during  your 
school  years?  And  what  would  become  of  your  readiness  to '' work," 
if  you  were  compelled  to  work  in  the  above  conditions  all  your  life  on 
a  pin's  head?  No  doubt,  anyhow  you  would  be  reported  as  a  lazy  fellow! 
And  I  afiirm  that  no  intelligent  man  can  be  closely  acquainted  with  the 
life  of  the  European  working  classes  without  wondering,  on  the  con- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  13^ 

trary,  at  their  readiness  to  work,  even  under  such  abominable  condi- 
tions. 

Overwork  is  reluctant  to  human  nature — not  work.  Overwork 
for  supplying  the  few  with  luxury — not  work  for  the  well-being  of  all. 
Work,  labor,  is  a  physiological  necessity,  a  necessity  of  spending  accum- 
ulated bodily  energy,  a  necessity  which  is  health  and  life  itself.  If  so 
many  branches  of  useful  work  are  so  reluctantly  done  now,  it  is  merely 
because  they  mean  overwork,  or  they  are  improperly  orgiinized.  But 
we  know — old  Franklin  knew  it — that  four  hours  of  useful  work  every 
day  would  be  more  than  sufficient  for  supplying  everybody  with  the 
comfort  of  a  moderately  well-to-do  middle-class  house,  if  we  all  gave 
ourselves  to  productive  work,  and  if  we  did  not  waste  our  productive 
powers  as  we  do  waste  them  now.  As  to  the  childish  question,  repeated 
for  fifty  years  (who  would  do  disagreeable  work?),  frankly  I  regret  that 
none  of  our  savants  has  ever  been  brought  to  do  it,  be  it  for  only  one 
day  in  his  life.  If  there  is  still  work  which  is  really  disagreeable  in 
itself,  it  is  only  because  our  scientific  men  have  never  cared  to  consider 
the  means  for  rendering  it  less  so ;  they  always  knew  that  there  were 
plenty  of  starving  men  who  would  do  it  for  a  few  pence  a  day. 

As  to  the  third — the  chief — objection,  which  maintains  the  neces- 
sity of  a  government  for  punishing  those  who  break  the  law  of  society, 
there  is  so  much  to  say  about  it  that  it  hardly  can  be  touched  incident- 
ally. The  more  we  study  the  question,  the  more  we  are  brought  to  the 
conclusion  that  society  itself  is  responsible  for  the  anti-social  deeds 
perpetrated  in  its  midst:  and  that  no  punishment,  no  prison,  and  no 
hangman  can  diminish  the  nuiibers  of  like  deeds;  nothmg  short  of  a 
re-organization  of  society  itself.  Three-quarters  of  all  the  acts  which 
are  brought  every  year  before  our  courts  have  their  origin,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  in  the  present  disorganized  state  of  society  with  regard  to 
the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth — not  in  the  perversity  of 
human  nature.  As  to  the  relatively  few  anti-social  deeds  which  result 
from  anti-social  inclinations  of  separate  individuals,  it  is  not  by  prisons, 
nor  even  by  resorting  to  the  hangman,  that  we  can  diminish  their 
numbers.  By  our  prisons,  we  merely  multiply  them  and  render  them 
worse.  By  our  detectives,  our  *' price  of  blood,"  our  executions,  and  our 
jails,  we  spread  in  society  such  a  terrible  flow  of  basest  passions  and 
habits,  that  he  who  would  realize  the  effects  of  these  institutions  to 
their  full  extent,  would  be  frightened  by  what  society  is  doing  under 
the  pretext  of  maintaining  morality.  We  iiiifst  search,  for  other  remedies, 
and  the  remedies  have  been  indicatejd  long  since. 

Of  course  now,  when  a  mother  in  search  of  food  and  shelter  for  her 
children  muijt  pass  by  shops  filled  up  with  the  most  refined  delicacies  of 
refined  gluttony;  when  gori^eous  and  insolent  luxury  is  displayed  side 
))y  side  with  the  most  execrable  misery ;  when  the  dog  and  the  horse  of 
a  rich  man  are  far  lietter  cared  for  than  millions  of  children  whose 
mothers  earn  a  pitiful  salary  in  the  pit  or  the  manufactory;  when  each 
"  modest  "  evening  dress  of  a  lady  represents  eight  months,  or  one  year, 
of  human  labor;  when  enriciiment  on  somebody's  iiccount  is  the  avowed 
aim   of  the  ''  upper  classes,"  and  no  distinct  boundary  can  be  traced 


134  I'HE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

between  honest  and  dishonest  means  of  making  money — then  force  is 
the  only  means  for  maintaining  such  a  state  of  things;  then  an  army 
of  policemen,  judges,  and  hangmen  becomes  a  necessary  institution. 

But  if  all  our  children — all  children  are  our  children — received  a 
sound  instruction  and  education — and  we  have  the  means  of  doing  so; 
if  every  family  lived  in  a  decent  home — and  they  could  under  the  present 
high  pitch  of  our  production;  if  every  boy  and  girl  were  taught  a  handi- 
€raft  at  the  same  time  as  he  or  she  receives  a  scientific  instruction,  and 
not  to  be  a  manual  producer  of  wealth  were  considered  as  a  token  of 
inferiority;  if  men  lived  in  closer  contact  with  oue  another,  and  had 
continually  to  come  into  contact  on  those  public  affairs  which  now  are 
invested  in  the  few;  and  if,  in  consequence  of  a  closer  contact,  we  were 
.brought  to  take  as  lively  an  interest  in  our  neighbors'  difficulties  and 
pains  as  we  formerly  took  in  those  of  our  kinsfolk — then  we  should  not 
resort  to  policemen  and  judges,  to  prisons  and  executions.  The  anti- 
social deeds  would  be  prevented  in  bud^  not  punished;  the  few  contests 
which  would  arise  would  be  easily  settled  by  arbitrators;  and  no  more 
force  would  be  necessary  to  impose  their  decisions  than  is  required  now 
for  enforcing  the  decisions  of  the  family  tribunals  of  China,  or  of  the 
Valencia  water-courts. 

And  here  we  are  brought  to  consider  a  great  question:  What 
would  become  of  morality  in  a  society  which  would  recognize  no  laws 
and  proclaim  the  full  fi:eedom  of  the  individual?  Our  answer  is  plain. 
Public  morality  is  independent  from,  and  anterior  to,  law  and  religion. 
Until  now,  the  teachings  of  morality  have  been  associated  with  religious 
teachings.  But  the  influence  which  religious  teachings  formerly  exer- 
cised on  the  mind  has  faded  of  late,  and  the  sanction  which  morality 
derived  from  religion  has  no  more  the  power  it  formerly  had.  Millions 
and  millions  grow  in  our  cities  who  have  lost  the  old  faith.  Is  it  a 
reason  for  throwing  morality  overboard,  and  for  treating  it  with  the 
same  sarcasm  as  primitive  cosmogony? 

Obviously  not.  No  society  is  possible  without  certain  principles 
of  morality  generally  recognized.  If  everybody  grew  accustomed  to 
deceive  his  fellow-men;  if  we  never  could  rely  on  each  other's  promise 
and  words;  if  everybody  treated  his  like  as  an  enemy,  against  whom 
every  means  of  warfare  is  justifiable — no  society  could  exist.  And  we 
see,  in  fact,  that  notwithstanding  the  decay  of  religious  beliefs,  the 
principles  of  morality  remain  unshaken.  We  even  see  irreligious  people 
trying  to  raise  the  current  standard  of  morality.  The  fact  is  that  moral 
principles  are  independent  of  religions  beliefs;  they  are  anterior  to  them. 
The  primitive  Tchuktchis  have  no  religion;  they  have  only  supersti- 
tions and  fear  of  the  hostile  forces  of  nature;  and  nevertheless  we  find 
with  them  the  very  same  principles  of  morality  which  are  taught  by 
Christians  and  Buddhists,  Mussulmans  and  Hebrews.  Nay,  some  of 
their  practices  imply  a  much  higher  standard  of  tribal  morality  than 
that  which  appears  in  our  civilized  society.  In  fact,  each  new  religion 
takes  its  moral  principles  from  the  only  real  stock  of  morality — the 
moral  habits  which  grow  with  men  as  soon  as  they  unite  to  live  to- 
gether in  tribes,  cities,  or  nations.     No  animal  society  is  possible  with- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  1^J5 

out  resulting  in  a  growth  of  certain  moral  habits  of  mutual  support 
and  even  self-sacrifice  for  the  common  well-being.  These  habits  are  a 
necessary  condition  for  the  welfare  of  the  species  in  its  struggle  for 
life — co-operation  of  individuals  being  a  much  more  important  factor 
in  the  struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  species  than  the  so-much- 
spoken-of  physical  struggle  between  individuals  for  the  means  of  exist- 
ence. The  "  fittest "  in  the  organic  world  are  those  who  grow  accus- 
tomed to  life  in  society;  and  life  in  society  necessarily  implies  moral 
habits.  As  to  mankind,  it  has,  during  its  long  existence,  developed  in 
its  midst  a  nucleus  of  social  habits,  of  moral  habits,  which  cannot  dis- 
appear as  long  as  human  societies  exist.  And,  therefore,  notwithstand- 
ing the  influences  to  the  contrary  which  are  now  at  work  in  conse- 
quence of  our  present  economical  relations,  the  nucleus  of  our  moral 
habits  continues  to  exist.  Law  and  religion  only  formulate  them  and 
endeavor  to  enforce  them  by  their  sanction. 

Whatever  the  variety  of  theories  of  morality,  all  can  be  brought 
under  three  chief  categories:  the  morality  of  religion;  the  utilitarian 
morality;  and  the  theory  of  moral  habits  resulting  from  the  very 
needs  of  life  in  society.  Bach  religious  morality  sanctifies  its  prescrip- 
tions by  making  them  originate  from  revelation;  and  it  tries  to  impress 
its  teachings  on  the  mind  by  a  promise  of  reward,  or  punishment,  either 
in  this  or  in  a  future  life.  The  utilitarian  morality  maintains  the  idea 
of  reward,  but  it  finds  it  in  man  himself.  It  invites  men  to  analyze 
their  pleasures,  to  classify  them,  and  to  give  preference  to  those  which 
are  most  intense  and  most  durable.  We  must  recognize,  however,  that, 
although  having  exercised  some  influence,  this  system  has  been  judged 
too  artificial  by  the  great  mass  of  human  beings.  And  finally — what- 
ever its  varieties — there  is  the  third  system  of  morality  which  sees  in 
moral  actions — in  those  actions  which  are  most  powerful  in  rendering 
men  best  fitted  to  life  in  society — a  mere  necessity  of  enjoying  the  joys 
of  his  brethren,  of  suffering  when  some  of  his  brethren  are  suffering; 
a  habit  and  a  second  nature,  slowly  elaborated  and  perfected  by  life  in 
society.  That  is  the  morality  of  mankind;  and  that  is  also  the  moral- 
ity of  anarchy. 

T  could  not  better  illustrate  the  difference  between  the  three  sys- 
tems of  morality  than  by  repeating  the  following  example.  Suppose  a 
child  is  drowning  in  a  river,  and  three  men  stand  on  the  bank  of  the 
river:  the  religious  moralist,  the  utilitarian,  and  the  plain  man  of  the 
people.  The  religious  man  is  supposed,  first,  to  say  to  himself  that  to 
save  the  child  would  bring  him  happiness  in  this  or  another  life,  and 
then  save  the  child;  but  if  he  does  so,  he  is  merely  a  good  reckoner,  no 
more.  Then  comes  the  utilitarian,  who  is  supposed  to  reason  thus: 
"  The  enjoyments  of  life  may  be  of  the  higher  and  of  the  lower  descrip- 
tion. To  save  the  child  would  assure  me  the  higher  enjoymeat.  There- 
fore, let  me  jump  in  the  river."  But,  admitting  that  there  ever  was  a 
man  who  reasoned  in  this  way,  again,  he  would  be  a  mere  reckoner,  and- 
society  would  do  better  not  to  rely  very  much  upon  him;  who  knows 
what  a  sophism  might  pass  one  day  through  his  head  I  And  here  is  the 
third  man.     He  does  not  much   calculate.     But   he  has  grown  in  the 


V 


y^Cy  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

habit  of  always  feeling  the  joys  of  those  who  surround  him,  and  to  feel 
happy  when  others  are  happy;  of  suffering,  deeply  suffering  when  oth- 
ers suffer.  To  act  accordingly  is  his  second  nature.  He  hears  the  cry 
of  the  mother,  he  sees  the  child  struggling  for  life,  and  he  jumps  in 
the  river  like  a  good  dog,  and  saA^es  the  child,  thanks  to  the  energy  of 
his  feelings.  And  when  the  mother  thanks  him,  he  answers:  "Whyl 
I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  I  did."  That  is  the  real  morality.  That  is 
the  morality  of  the  masses  of  the  people;  the  morality  grown  to  a  habit, 
which  will  exist,  whatever  the  ethical  theories  made  by  philosophers, 
and  ivill  steadily  improve  in  jwoportmi  as  the  conditions  of  our  social  life 
are  improved.  Such  a  morality  needs  no  laics  for  its  maintenance.  It  is 
a  natural  growth  favored  by  the  general  sympathy  which  every  advance 
towards  a  wider.and  higher  morality  finds  in  all  fellow-men. 

Such  are,  in  a  very  brief  summary,  the  leading  principles  of  anar- 
chy. Each  of  them  hurts  many  a  prejudice,  and  yet  each  of  them  re- 
sults from  an  analysis  of  the  very  tendencies  displayed  by  human  soci- 
ety. Each  of  them  is  rich  in  consequences  and  implies  a  thorough  re- 
vision of  many  a  current  opinion.  And  it  is  not  a  mere  insight  into  a 
remote  future.  Already  now,  whatever,  the  sphere  of  action  of  the  in- 
dividual, he  can  act,  either  in  accordance  with  anarchist  principles  or  on 
an  opposite  line.  And  all  that  may  be  done  in  that  direction  will  be 
done  in  the  direction  whereto  further  development  goes.  All  that  may 
*be  done  in  the  opposite  way  will  be  an  attempt  to  force  humanity  to  ga 
where  it  will  not  go. 

Petee  Kropotkin. 


CHAPTER  y. 

Ak  Akarchist  ois  Anarchy. 


[From  the    Contemporary    Review.] 

To  most  Englishmen  the  word  anarchy  is  so  evil-sounding  that 
ordinary  readers  of  the  Contemporary  Review  will  probably  turn 
from  these  pages  with  aversion,  wondering  how  anybody  could  have 
the  audacity  to  write  them.  With  the  crowd  of  commonplace  chat- 
terers we  are  already  past  praying  for;  no  reproach  is  too  bitter  for  us^ 
no  epithet  too  insulting.  Public  speakers  on  social  and  political  subjects 
find  that  abuse  of  anarchists  is  an  unfailing  passport  to  popular  favor. 
Every  conceivable  crime  is  laid  to  our  charge,  and  opinion,  too  indo- 
lent to  learn  the  truth,  is  easily  persauded  that  anarchy  is  but  another 
name  for  wickedness  and  chaos.  Overwhelmed  with  opprobrium  and 
held  up  to  hatred,  we  are  treated  on  the  principle  that  the  surest  way 
of  hanging  a  dog  is  to  give  it  a  bad  name. 

There  is  notliing  surprising  in  all  this.  The  chorus  of  impreca- 
tions with  which  Ave  are  assailed  is   quite  in  the  nature  of  things,  for 


.     THK    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  137 

we  speak  in  a  tongue  unhallowed  by  usage,  and  belong  to  none  of  the 
parties  that  dispute  the  possession  of  power.  Like  all  innovators, 
whether  they  be  violent  or  pacific,  we  bring  not  peace  but  a  sword,  and 
are  in  nowise  astonished  to  be  received  as  enemies. 

Yet  it  is  not  with  light  hearts  that  we  incur  so  much  ill-will,  nor 
are  we  satisfied  with  merely  knowing  that  it  is  undeserved.  To  risk  the 
loss  of  so  precious  an  advantage  as  popular  sympathy  without  first 
patiently  searching  out  the  truth  and  carefully  considering  our  duty 
were  an  act  of  reckless  folly.  To  a  degree  never  dreamt  of  by  men  who 
are  borne  unresistingly  on  the  great  current  of  puldic  opinion,  are  we 
bound  to  render  to  our  conscience  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us, 
to  strengthen  our  convictions  by  study  of  nature  and  mankind,  and, 
above  all,  to  compare  them  with  that  ideal  justice  which  has  been  slowly 
elaborated  by  the  untold  generations  of  our  race.  This  ideal  is 
known  to  all,  and  is  almost  too  trite  to  need  repeating.  It  exists  in 
the  moral  teaching  of  every  people,  civilized  or  savage;  every  religion 
has  tried  to  adapt  it  to  its  dogmas  and  precepts,  for  it  is  the  ideal  of 
equality  of  rights  and  reciprocity  of  services.  "We  are  all  brethren,'^ 
is  a  saying  repeated  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other,  and  the 
principle  of  universal  brotherhood  expressed  in  this  saying  implies  a 
complete  solidarity  of  interests  and  efforts. 

Accepted  in  its  integrity  by  simple  souls,  does  not  this  principle 
seem  to  imply  as  a  necessary  consequence  the  social  state  formulated 
by  modern  socialists:  ''To  each  according  to  his  needs,  from  each  ac- 
cording to  his  powers?"  Well,  we  are  simple  souls,  and  we  hold  firmly 
to  this  ideal  of  human  morality.  Of  a  surety  there  is  much  dross  mixed 
with  the  pure  metal,  and  the  personal  and  collective  egoism's  of  families, 
cities,  castes,  peoples,  and  parties  have  wrought  on  this  groundwork 
some  startling  variations.  But  we  have  not  to  do  here  with  the  ethics 
of  selfish  interests,  it  is  enough  to  identify  the  central  point  of  con- 
vergence towards  which  all  partial  ideas  more  or  less  tend.  This  focus 
of  gravitation  is  justice.  If  humanity  be  not  a  vain  dream,  if  all  our 
impressions,  all  our  thoughts,  are  not  pure  hallucinations,  one  capital 
fact  dominates  the  history  of  man — that  every  kindred  and  people 
yearns  after  justice.  The  very  life  of  humanity  is  but  one  long  cry  for 
that  fraternal  equity  which  still  remains  unattained.  Listen  to  the 
words,  uttered  nearly  three  thousand  years  ago,  of  old  Hesiod,  answer- 
ing beforehand  all  those  who  contend  that  the  struggle  for  existence 
dooms  us  to  eternal  strife:  ''Let  fishes,  the  wild  beasts  and  birds,  devour 
one  another — but  our  law  is  justice." 

Yet  how  vast  is  the  distance  that  still  separates  us  from  the 
justice  invoked  by  the  poet  in  the  very  dawn  of  history!  How  great  is 
the  prr)gress  we  have  still  to  make  before  we  may  rightfully  cease  com- 
paring ourselves  with  wild  creatures  fighting  for  a  morsel  of  carrion!  It 
IS  in  vain  that  we  pretend  to  be  civilized,  if  civilization  be  that 
which  Mr.  Alfred  R.  Wallace  has  described  as  "the  harmony  of  indi- 
vidual liberty  with  the  collective  will."  It  is  reaF.y  too  easy  to  criticise 
contemporary  society,  its  morals,  its  convent:r:^ns,  and  its  laws,  and  to 
show  how  much  its  practices  fall  short  of  the  ideal   justice  formulated 


l^  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OK   ANARCHISM. 

by  khinkers  and  desired  by  peoples.  To  repeat  stale  censures  is  to  risk 
bejflg  called  mere  declaimers,  scatterers  of  voices  in  the  market-place. 
And  yet  so  long  as  the  truth  is  not  heard,  is  it  not  our  duty  to  go  on 
speaking  it  in  season  and  out  of  season?  A  sincere  man  owes  it  to 
himself  to  expose  the  frightful  barbarity  which  still  prevails  in  the 
hidden  depths  of  a  society  so  outwardly  well-ordered.  Take,  for  instance, 
our  great  cities,  the  leaders  of  civilization,  especially  the  most  populous, 
a/id,  in  many  respects,  tl'e  first  of  all — that  immense  London,  which 
^/athers  to  herself  the  riches  of  the  world,  whose  every  warehouse  is 
worth  a  king's  ransom;  where  are  to  be  found  enough,  and  more 
than  enough,  of  food  and  clothing  for  the  needs  of  the  teeming  mil- 
lions that  throng  her  streets  in  greater  numbers  than  the  ants  which 
swarm  in  the  never-ending:  labyrinth  of  their  subterranean  galleries. 
And  yet  the  wretched  who  cast  longing:  and  hungry  eyes  on  those 
hoards  of  wealth  may  be  counted  by  the  hundred  thousand;  by  the  side 
of  untold  splendors,  want  is  consuming  the  vitals  of  entire  populations, 
and  it  is  only  at  times  that  the  fortunate  for  whom  these  treasures  are 
amassed  hear,  as  a  muffled  wailing,  the  bitter  cry  which  arises  eternally 
from  those  unseen  depths.  Below  the  London  of  fashion  is  a  London 
accursed,  a  London  whose  only  food  are  dirt-stained  fragments,  whose 
only  garments  are  filthy  rags,  and  whose  only  dwellings  are  fetid  dens. 
Have  the  disinherited  the  consolation  of  hope?  No;  they  are  deprived 
of  all.  There  are  some  among  them  who  live  and  die  in  dampness  and 
gloom  without  once  raising  their  eyes  to  the  sun. 

What  boots  it  to  the  wretched  outcast,  burning  with  fever  or  crav- 
ing for  bread,  that  the  book  of  the  Christians  opens  the  doors  of  heaven 
more  widely  to  him  than  to  the  rich!  Besides  his  present  misery  all 
these  promises  of  happiness,  even  if  he  heard  them,  would  seem  the 
bitterest  irony.  Does  it  not  appear,  moreover — judging  by  the  society 
in  which  the  majority  of  the  preachers  of  the  gospel  most  delight — 
that  the  words  of  Jesus  are  reversed,  that  the  "Kingdom  of  God"  is  the 
guerdon  of  the  fortunate  of  this  world — a  world  where  spiritual  and 
temporal  government  are  on  the  best  of  terms,  and  religion  leads  as 
sureii'  to  earthly  power  as  to  heavenly  bliss?  "Religion  is  a  cause  for 
preferment,  irreligion  a  bar  to  it,"  as  a  famous  commentator  of  the  Bible, 
speaking  to  his  sovereign,  said  it  oui^ht  to  be. 

When  ambition  thus  finds  its  ace  >unt  in  piety,  and  hypocrites  prac- 
tice religion  in  order  to  give  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  their 
•conscience  a  higher  mercantile  value,  is  it  surprising  that  the  great 
army  of  the  hopeless  should  forget  their  way  to  church?  Do  th  y  de- 
ceive themselves  in  tli inking  that,  despite  official  invitations,  they 
would  not  always  be  well  received  in  the  "house  of  God?"  Without 
speaking  here  of  churches  whose  sittings  are  sold  at  a  price,  where  you 
may  enter  only  purse  in  hand,  is  it  nothing  to  the  poor  to  feel  tliem- 
selves  arrested  on  the  threshold  by  the  cold  looks  of  well-clad  men  and 
the  tightened  lips  of  elegant  women?  True,  no  wall  bars  the  passage, 
but  an  obstacle  still  more  formidable  stops  the  way — the  dark  atmos- 
phere of  hatred  and  disgust  which  rises  between  the  disinherited  and 
the  world's  elect. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  139 

Yet  the  first  word  uttered  by  the  minister  when  he  stands  up  in 
in  the  pulpit  is  "brethren,"  a  word  which,  by  a  characteristic  differenti- 
ation, has  come  to  mean  no  more  than  a  sort  of  potential  and  theoretic 
fraternity  without  practical  reality.  Nevertheless,  its  primitive  sense 
has  not  altogether  perished,  and  if  the  outcast  that  hears  it  be  not 
stupefied  by  hunger^  if  he  be  not  one  of  those  boneless  beings  who  re- 
peat idiotically  all  they  hear,  what  bitter  thoughts  will  be  suggested  by 
this  word  ''brethren"  coming  from  the  lips  of  men  who  feel  so  little  its 
force!  The  impressions  of  my  childhood  surge  back  into  my  mind. 
When  I  heard  for  the  first  time  an  earnest  and  eager  voice  bes?ech  the 
''Father  who  is  in  heaven"  to  give  us  "our  daily  bread,"  it  seemed  to  me 
that  by  a  mysterious  act  a  meal  would  descend  from  on  high  on  all  the 
tables  of  the  world.  I  imagined  that  these  words,  repeated  millions 
and  milliards  of  times,  were  a  cry  of  human  brotherhood,  and  that 
■each,  in  uttering  them,  thought  of  all.  I  deceived  myself.  With  some 
the  prayer  is  sincere;  with  the  greater  part  it  is  but  an  empty  sound,  a 
gust  of  wind  like  that  which  passes  through  the  reeds. 

Governments  at  least  talk  not  to  the  poor  about  fraternity;  they  do 
not  torment  them  with  so  sorry  a  jest.  It  is  true  that  in  some  countries 
the  jargon  of  courts  compares  the  sovereign  to  a  father  whose  subjects 
are  his  children,  and  upon  whom  he  pours  the  inexhaustible  dews  of  his 
love;  but  this  formula,  which  the  hungry  might  abuse  by  asking  for 
bread,  is  no  longer  taken  seriously.  So  long  as  governments  were 
looked  upon  as  direct  representatives  of  a  heavenly  sovereign,  holding 
their  powers  by  the  grace  of  God,  the  comparison  was  legitimate;  but 
there  are  very  few  now  that  make  any  claim  to  this  qiiasi-diYimtj.  Shorn 
of  the  sanctions  of  religion,  they  no  longer  hold  themselves  answerable 
for  the  general  weal,  contenting  themselves  instead  with  promising 
good  administration,  impartial  justice,  and  strict  economy  in  the 
administration  of  public  affairs.  Let  history  tell  bow  these  promises  have 
been  kept.  Nobody  can  study  contemporary  politics  without  being 
struck  by  the  truth  of  the  words  attributed  alike  to  Oxenstjerna  and 
Lord  Chesterfield:  "  Go,  my  son,  and  see  with  how  little  wisdom  the 
world  is  governed!"  It  is  now  a  matter  of  commoif  knowledge  that 
power,  w^hether  its  nature  be  monarchic,  aristocratic,  or  democratic, 
whether  it  be  based  on  the  right  of  the  sword,  of  inheritance,  or  of 
election,  is  wielded  by  men  neither  better  nor  worse  than  their  fellows, 
but  whose  position  exposes  them  to  greater  temptations  to  do  evil. 
Raised  above  the  crowd,  whom  they  soon  learn  to  despise,  they  end  by 
considering  themselves  essentially  superior  beings;  solicited  by  ambition 
in  a  thousand  forms,  by  vanity,  greed,  and  caprice,  they  are  all  the  more 
easily  corrupted  that  a  rabble  of  interested  flatterers  is  ever  on  the  watch 
to  profit  by  their  vices.  And  possessing  as  they  do  a  preponderant 
influence  in  all  things,  holding  the  powerful  lever  whereby  is  moved  the 
immense  mechanism  of  the  State — functionaries,  soldiers,  and  police — 
«very  one  of  their  oversights,  their  faults,  or  their  crimes  repeats  itself 
to  infinity,  and  magnifies  as  it  grows.  It  is  only  too  true:  a  fit  of 
impatience  in  a  sovereign,  a  crooked  look,  an  equivocal  word,  may  plunge 
nations   into   mourning,   and  be  fraught    with  disaster  for   mankind. 


140  1""^    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

English  readers,  brought  up  to  a  knowledge  [of  biblical  lore,  will 
remember  the  striking  parable  of  the  trees  who  wanted  a  king.  The- 
peaceful  trees  and  the  strong,  those  who  love  work  and  whom  man 
blesses;  the  olive  that  makes  oil,  the  fig-tree  that  grows  good  fruit,  the 
vine  that  produces  wine,  "which  cheereth  God  and  man,"  refuse  to- 
reign;  the  bramble  accepts,  and  of  that  noxious  briar  is  born  the  flame 
which  devours  the  cedars  of  Lebanon. 

But  these  depositaries  of  power  who  are  charged,  whether  by  right 
divine  or  universal  suffrage,  with  the  august  mission  of  dispensing 
justice,  can  they  be  considered  as  in  any  way  more  infallible,  or  even  as 
impartial?-  Can  it  be  said  that  the  laws  and  their  interpreters  show 
towards  all  men  the  ideal  equity  as  it  exists  in  the  popular  conception? 
Are  the  judges  blind  when  there  come  before  them  the  wealthy  and  the- 
poor — Shylock,  with  his  murderous  knife,  and  the  unfortunate  who  has 
sold  beforehand  pounds  of  his  flesh  or  ounces  of  his  blood?  Hold  they 
always  even  scales  between  the  king's  son  and  the  beggar's  brat?  That 
these  magistrates  should  firmly  believe  in  their  own  impartiality  and 
think  themselves  incarnate  right  in  human  shape,  is  quite  natural; 
every  one  puts  on — sometimes  without  knowing  it  —  the  peculiar 
morality  of  his  calling;  yet  judges,  no  more  than  priests,  can  withstand 
the  influence  of  their  surroundings.  Their  sense  of  what  constitutes 
justice,  derived  from  the  average  opinion  of  the  age,  is  insensibly 
modified  by  the  prejudices  of  their  class.  How  honest  soever  they  may 
be,  they  cannot  forget  that  they  belong  to  the  rich  and  powerful,  or  ta 
those,  less  fortunate,  who  are  still  on  the  look-out  for  preferment  and 
honor.  They  are  moreover  blindly  attached  to  precedent,  and  fancy  that 
practices  inherited  from  their  forerunners  must  needs  be  right.  Yet 
when  we  examine  official  justice  without  prejudice,  how  many  iniquities- 
do  we  find  in  legal  procedures !  Thus  the  English  are  scandalized — and 
rightly  so — by  the  French  fashion  of  examining  prisoners,  those  sacred 
beings  who,  in  strict  probity,  ought  to  be  held  innocent  until  they  are 
proved  guilty;  while  the  French  are  disgusted,  and  not  without  reason^ 
to  see  English  justice,  through  the  English  government,  publicly 
encourage  treachery  by  offers  of  impunity  and  money  to  the  betrayer, 
thereby  deepening  the  degradation  of  the  debased  and  provoking  acts  of 
shameful  meanness  which  children  in  their  schools,  more  moral  than 
their  elders,  regard  with  unfeigned  horror. 

Nevertheless,  law,  like  religion,  plays  only  a  secondary  part  in  con- 
temporary society.  It  is  invoked  but  rarely  to  regulate  the  relations 
between  the  poor  and  the  rich,  the  powerful  and  the  weak.  These  rela- 
tions are  the  outcome  of  economic  laws  and  the  evolution  of  a  social 
system  based  on  inequality  of  conditions. 

Laissez  fair  el  Let  things  alone!  have  said  the  judges  of  the  camp. 
Careers  are  open;  and  although  the  field  is  covered  with  corpses,  although 
the  conqueror  stamps  on  the  bodies  of  the  vanquished,  although  by  sup- 
ply and  demand,  and  the  combinations  and  monopolies  in  which  they 
result,  the  greater  part  of  society  becomes  enslaved  to  the  few,  let  things 
alone — for  thus  has  decreed  fair  play.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  beautiful 
system  that  a  parvenu^  without  speaking  of  the  great  lord  who  receives- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  141 

counties  as  his  heritage,  is  able  to  conquer  with  ready  money  thousands 
of  acres,  expel  those  who  cultivate  his  domain,  and  replace  men  and 
their  dwellings  with  wild  animals  and  rare  trees.  It  is  thus  that  a 
tradesman,  more  cunning  or  intelligent,  or,  perhaps,  more  favored  by 
luck  than  his  fellows,  is  enabled  to  become  master  of  an  army  of 
workers,  and  as  often  as  not  to  starve  them  at  his  pleasure.  In  a  word, 
commercial  competition,  under  the  paternal  aegis  of  the  law,  lets  the 
great  majority  of  merchants — the  fact  is  attested  by  numberless  medical 
inquests — adulterate  provisions  and  drink,  sell  pernicious  substances  as 
wholesome  food,  and  kill  by  slow  poisoning,  without  for  one  day  neglect- 
ing their  religious  duties,  their  brothers  in  Jesus  Christ.  Let  people 
say  what  they  will^,  slavery,  which  abolitionists  strove  so  gallantly  to 
extirpate  in  America,  prevails  in  another  form  in  every  civilized  coun- 
try; for  entire  populations,  placed  between  the  alternatives  of  death  by 
starvation  and  toils  which  they  detest,  are  constrained  to  choose  the 
latter.  And  if  we  would  deal  frankly  with  the  barbarous  society  to 
which  we  belong,  we  must  acknowledge  that  murder,  albeit  disguised 
under  a  thousand  insidious  and  scientific  forms,  still,  as  in  the  times  of 
primitive  savagery,  terminates  the  majority  of  lives.  The  economist 
sees  around  him  but  one  vast  field  of  carnage,  and  with  the  coldness  of 
the  statistician  he  counts  the  slain  as  on  the  evening  after  a  great 
battle.  Judge  by  these  figures.  The  mean  mortality  among  the  well- 
to-do  is,  at  the  utmost,  one  in  sixty.  Now  the  population  of  Europe 
being  a  third  of  a  thousand  millions,  the  average  deaths,  according  to 
the  rate  of  mortality  among  the  fortunate,  should  not  exceed  five  mil- 
lions. They  are  three  times  five  millions!  What  have  we  done  with 
these  ten  million  human  beings  killed  before  their  time?  If  it  be  true 
that  we  have  duties,  one  towards  the  other,  are  we  not  responsible  for 
the  servitude,  the  cold,  the  hunger,  the  miseries  of  every  sort,  which 
doom  the  unfortunate  to  untimely  deaths?  Race  of  Cains,  what  have 
we  done  with  our  brothers? 

And  what  are  the  remedies  proposed  for  the  social  ills  which  are 
consuming  the  very  marrow  of  our  bones?  Can  charity,  as  asserts  many 
good  souls — who  are  answered  in  chorus  by  a  crowd  of  egotists — can 
charity  by  any  possibility  deal  with  so  vast  an  evil?  True,  we  know 
some  devoted  ones  who  seem  to  live  only  that  they  may  do  good.  In 
England,  above  all,  is  this  the  case.  Among  the  childless  women  who 
are  constrained  to  lavish  their  love  on  their  kind  are  to  be  found  many 
of  those  admirable  beings  whose  lives  are  passed  in  consoling  the 
afflicted,  visiting  the  sick,  and  ministering  to  the  young.  We  cannot 
help  being  touched  by  the  exquisite  benevolence,  the  indefatigable 
solicitude  shown  by  these  ladies  towards  their  unhappy  fellow-creatures; 
but,  taken  even  in  their  entirety,  what  economic  value  can  be  attached 
to  these  well-meant  afEorts?  What  sum  represents  the  charities  of  a 
year  in  comparison  with  the  gains  which  hucksters  of  money  and 
hawkers  of  loans  oftentimes  make  by  the  speculaUons  of  a  single  day? 
While  ladies  bountiful  are  giving  a  cup  or  tea  to  a  pauper,  or  prepar- 
ing a  potion  for  the  sick,  a  father  or  a  brother,  by  a  hardy  stroke  on  the 
stock  exchange  or  a  successful    transaction  in  produce,  may  reduce   to 


1^2  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM. 

ruin  thousands  of  Britisli  workmen  or  Hindoo  coolies.  And  how  worthy 
of  respect  soever  may  be  deeds  of  unostentatious  charity,  is  it  not  a  fact 
the  bestowal  of  alms  is  generally  a  matter  of  personal  caprice,  and  that 
their  distribution  is  too  often  influenced  rather  by  the  political  and 
religious  sympathies  of  the  giver  than  by  the  moral  worth  of  t  lie  recipient  ? 
Even  were  help  always  given  to  those  who  most  need  it.  charity  would  be 
none  the  less  tainted  with  the  capital  vice,  that  it  infallibly  constitutes 
relations  of  inequality  between  the  benefitted  and  the  benefactor.  The 
latter  rejoices  in  the  consciousness  of  having  done  a  good  thing,  as  if  hp 
were  not  simply  discharging  a  debt;  and  the  former  asks  bread  as  a 
favor,  when  he  should  demand  work  as  a  right,  or,  if  helpless,  human 
solidarity.  Thus  are  created  and  developed  hideous  mendicity  with  its 
lies,  its  tricks,  an?!  its  base,  heart-breaking  hypocrisy.  How  much 
nobler  are  the  customs  of  some  so-called  ^'barbarous  countries"  where 
the  hungry  man  simply  stops  by  the  side  of  those  who  eat,  is  welcomed 
by  all,  .and  then,  when  satisfied,  with  a  friendly  greeting  withdraws — 
remaining  in  every  respect  the  equal  of  his  host,  and  fretting  under  no 
painful  sense  of  obligation  for  favors  received!  But  charity  breeds 
patronage  and  platitudes — miserable  fruits  of  a  wretched  system,  yet 
the  best  which  a  society  of  capitalists  has  to  offer  us! 

Hence  we  may  say  that,  in  letting  those  whom  they  govern — and 
the  responsibility  for  whose  fate  they  thereby  accept — waste  by  want, 
sink  under  exposure,  and  deteriorate  by  vice,  the  leaders  of  modern 
society  have  committed  moral  banltruptcy.  But  where  the  masters 
have  come  short,  free  men  may,  perchance,  succeed.  The  failure  of 
governments  is  no  reason  w^hy  we  should  be  discouraged ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  shows  us  the  danger  of  entrusting  to  others  the  guardianship 
of  our  rights,  and  makes  us  all  the  more  firmly  resolved  to  take  our  own 
cause  into  our  own  care.  We  are  not  among  those  whom  the  practice 
of  social  hypocricies,  the  long  weariness  of  a  crooked  life,  and  the 
uncertainty  of  the  future  have  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  asking  ourselves 
— without  daring  to  answer  it — the  sad  question:  "Is  life  worth  living?" 
Yes,  to  us  life  does  seem  worth  living,  but  on  condition  that  it  has  an 
end — not  personal  happiness,  not  a  paradise,  either  in  this  world  or  the 
next — but  the  realization  of  a  cherished  wish,  an  ideal  that  belongs  to 
us  and  springs  from  our  innermost  conscience.  We  are  striving  to 
draw  nearer  to  that  ideal  equality  which,  century  after  century,  has 
hovered  before  subject  peoples  like  a  heavenly  dream.  The  little  each  of 
us  can  do  offers  an  ample  recompense  for  the  perils  of  the  combat.  On 
these  terms  life  is  good,  even  a  life  of  suffering  and  sacrifice — even 
though  it  may  be  cut  short  by  premature  death. 

The  first  condition  of  equality,  without  which  any  other  progress 
is  merest  mockery — the  object  of  all  socialists  without  exception — is 
that  every  man  shall  have  bread.  To  talk  of  duty,  of  renunciation,  of 
ethereal  virtues  to  the  famishing,  is  nothing  less  than  cowardice.  Dives 
has  no  rigbt  to  preach  morality  to  the  beggar  at  his  gates.  If  it  were 
true  that  civilised  lands  did  not  produce  food  enough  for  all,  it  might 
be  said  that,  by  virtue  of  vital  competition,  bread  should  be  reserved  for 
the  strong,  and  that  the  weak  must  content  themselves  with  the  crumbs 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  1^43 

that  fall  from  the  feasters'  tables.  In  a  family  where  love  prevails 
things  are  not  ordered  in  this  way;  on  the  contrary,  the  small  and  the 
ailing  receive  the  fullest  measure;  yet  it  is  evident  that  dearth  may 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  violent  and  mr.ke  the  powerful  monopolizers 
of  bread.  But  are  our  modern  societies  really  reduced  to  these  straits? 
On  the  contrary,  whatever  may  be  the  value  of  Mai  thus'  forecast  as 
to  the  distant  future,  it  is  an  actual,  incontestable  fact  that  in  the  civi- 
lized countries  of  Europe  and  America  the  sum  total  of  provisions 
produced,  or  received  in  exchange  for  manufactures,  is  more  than 
enough  for  the  sustenance  of  the  people.  Even  in  times  of  partial 
dearth  the  granaries  and  wtirehouses  have  but  to  open  their  doors  that 
every  one  may  have  a  sufficient  share.  Notwithstanding  waste  and 
prodigality,  despite  the  enormous  losses  arising  from  moving  about  and 
"handling"  in  warehouses  and  shops,  there  is  always  enough  to  feed 
generously  all  the  world.  And  yet  there  are  some  who  die  of  hunger! 
And  yet  there  are  fathers  who  kill  their  children  because  when  the  little 
ones  cry  for  bread  they  have  none  to  give  them. 

Others  may  turn  their  eyes  from  these  horrors;  we  socialists  look 
them  full  in  the  face,  and  seek  out  their  cause.  That  cause  is  the 
monopoly  of  the  soil,  the  appropriation  by  a  few  of  the  land  which 
belongs  to  all.  We  anarchists  are  not  the  only  ones  to  say  it:  the  cry  for 
nationalization  of  the  land  is  rising  so  high  that  all  may  hear  it  who 
do  not  wilfully  ck  s )  their  ears.  The  idea  spreads  fast,  for  private 
property,  in  its  present  form,  has  had  its  day,  and  historians  are  every- 
where testifying  that  the  old  Roman  law  is  not  synonymous  with 
eternal  justice.  Without  doubt  it  were  vain  to  hope  that  holders  of  the 
soil,  saturated,  so  to  speak,  with  ideas  of  cast,  of  privilege  and  of 
inheritance,  will  voluntarily  give  back  to  all  the  bread -yielding  fu^•o^■♦o; 
the  glory  will  not  be  theirs  of  joining  as  equals  their  fellow-citizens; 
but  when  public  opinion  is  ripe — and  day  by  day  it  grows — individuals 
will  oppose  in  vain  the  general  concourse  of  wills,  and  the  nxe  will  be 
applied  to  the  upas  tree's  roots.  Arable  land  will  be  held  once  more  in 
common;  but  instead  of  being  ploughed  and  sown  almost  at  hazard  by 
ignorant  hands,  as  it  has  hitherto  been,  science  will  aid  us  in  the  choice  of 
climate,  of  soils,  of  methods  of  culture,  of  fertilizers,  and  of  maphinery. 
Husbandry  will  be  guided  by  the  same  prescience  as  mechanical  com- 
binations and  chemical  operations;  but  the  fruits  of  his  toil  will  not  be 
lost  to  the  laborer.  Many  so-called  savage  societies  hold  their  land 
in  common,  and  humble  though  in  our  eyes  they  may  seem,  they 
are  our  betters  in  this:  want  among  them  is  unknown.  Are  we;  then, 
too  ambitious  in  desiring  to  attain  a  social  state  which  shall  add  to 
the  conquests  of  civilization  the  privileges  of  these  primitive  tribes? 
Through  the  education  of  our  children  we  may  to  some  extent  fashion 
the  future.  ■ 

After  we  have  bread  for  all,  we  shall  require  something  more — 
equality  of  rights:  but  this  noint  will  soon  be  realized,  for  a  man  who 
needs  not  incline  himself  before  his  fellows  to  crave  a  pittande  is  already 
their  equal.  Equality  of  conditions,  which  is  in  no  way  incompatible 
with  the  infinite  diversity  of  human  character,  we  ardently  desire  and 


144  "^^^    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

look  upon  as  indispensable,  for  it  offers  us  tho  :)nly  means  whereby  a 
true  public  morality  can  be  developed.  A  man  can  be  truly  moral  only 
when  he  is  his  own  master.  From  the  moment  when  he  awakens  to  a 
comprehension  of  that  which  is  equitable  and  good  it  is  for  him  to  direct 
his  own  movements,  to  seek  in  his  conscience  reasons  for  his  actions, 
and  to  perform  them  simply  without  either  fearing  punishment  or 
looking  for  reward.  Nevertheless  his  will  cannot  fail  to  be  strength- 
ened when  he  sees  other  men,  guided  like  himself  by  their  own  volition, 
following  the  same  line  of  conduct.  Mutual  example  will  soon  consti- 
tute a  collective  code  of  ethics  to  which  all  may  conform  without  effort; 
but  the  moment  that  orders,  enforced  by  legal  penalties,  replace  the  per- 
sonal impulses  of  the  conscience,  there  is  an  end  to  morality.  Hence 
the  saying  of  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  "the  law  makes  sin."  Even 
more,  it  is  sin  itself,  because,  instead  of  appealing  to  man's  better  part, 
to  his  bold  initiative,  it  appeals  to  his  worst — it  rules  by  fear.  It  thus 
behooves  every  one  to  resist  laws  that  he  has  not  made,  and  to  defend 
his  personal  rights,  which  are  also  the  rights  of  others.  People  often 
speak  of  the  antagonism  between  rights  and  duties.  It  is  an  empty 
phrase;  there  is  no  such  antagonism.  Whoso  vindicates  his  own  rights 
fulfills  at  the  same  time  his  duty  towards  his  fellow-men.  Privilege, 
not  right,  is  the  converse  of  duty. 

Besides  the  possession  of  a  man's  own  person,  sound  morality  in- 
volves yet  another  condition — mutual  good-will,  which  is  likewise  the 
outcome  of  equality.  The  time-honered  words  of  Mahabarata  are  as 
true  as  ever:  ^'The  ignorant  are  not  the  friends  of  the  wise;  the  man 
who  has  no  cart  is  not  the  friend  of  him  who  has  a  cart.  Friend- 
ship is  the  daughter  of  equality;  it  is  never  born  of  inequality."  With- 
out doubt  it  is  given  to  some  men,  great  by  their  thoughts,  hj  sympa- 
thy, or  by  strength  of  will,  to  win  the  multitude;  but  if  the  attachment 
of  their  followers  and  admirers  comes  otherwise  than  of  an  enthusiastic 
affinity  of  idea  to  idea,  or  of  heart  to  heart,  it  is  speedily  transformed 
either  into  fanaticism  or  servility.  He  who  is  hailed  lord  by  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  crowd  must  almost  of  necessity  attribute  to  himself  excep- 
tional virtues,  or  a  ''  grace  of  God,"  that  marks  him  in  his  own  estima- 
tion as  a  predestined  being,  and  he  usurps  without  hesitation  or  remorse 
privileges  which  he  transmits  as  a  heritage  to  his  children.  But,  while 
in  rank  exalted,  he  is  morally  degraded,  and  his  partisans  and  syco- 
phants are  more  degraded  still;  they  wait  for  the  words  of  command 
which  fall  from  the  master's  lips;  when  they  hear  in  the  depths  of  their 
conscience  some  faint  note  of  dissent,  it  is  stifled;  they  become  practiced 
liars,  they  stoop  to  flattery,  and  lose  the  power  of  looking  honest  men 
in  the  face.  Between  him  who  conimands  and  him  who  obeys,  and 
whose  degradation  deepens  from  generation  to  generation,  there  is  no 
possibility  of  friendship.  The  virtues  are  transformed ;  brotherly  frank- 
ness is  destroyed;  independence  becomes  a  crime;  above  is  either  pity- 
ing condescension  or  haughty  contempt,  below  either  envious  admira- 
tion or  hidden  hate.  Let  each  of  us  recall  the  past  and  ask  ourselves 
in  all  sincerity  this  question:  ''Who  are  the  men  in  whose  society  we 
have  experienced  the  most  pleasure?     Are  they  personages  who  have 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  245 

'honored'  us  with  their  conversation,  or  the  humble  with  whom  we 
have  '  deigned '  to  associate  ?  Are  they  not  rather  our  equals,  those 
whose  looks  neither  implore  nor  command,  and  whom  we  may  love  with 
open  hearts  without  afterthouo:ht  or  reserve?" 

It  is  to  live  in  condition  of  equality  and  escape  from  the  falsehoods 
and  hypocrisies  of  a  society  of  superiors  and  inferiors,  that  so  many 
men  and  women  have  formed  themselves  into  close  corporations  and 
little  worlds  apart.  America  abounds  in  communities  of  this  sort.  But 
these  societies,  few  of  which  prosper  while  many  perish,  are  all  ruled 
more  or  less  by  force;  they  carry  within  themselves  the  seeds  of  their 
own  dissolution,  and  are  reabsorbed  by  nature's  law  of  gravitation  into 
the  world  which  they  have  left.  Yet  even  were  they  perfection,  if  man 
enjoyed  in  them  the  highest  happiness  of  which  his  nature  is  capable, 
they  would  be  none  the  less  obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  selfish  isolation, 
of  raising  a  wall  between  themselves  and  the  rest  of  their  race;  their 
pleasures  are  egotistical,  and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  humanity  would 
draw  back  the  best  of  them  into  the  great  struggle. 

As  for  us  anarchists,  never  will  we  separate  ourselves  from  the 
world  to  build  a  little  church,  hidden  in  some  vast  wilderness.  Here  is 
the  fighting  ground,  and  we  remain  in  the  ranks,  ready  to  give 
our  help  wherever  it  may  be  most  needed.  We  do  not  cherish  prema- 
ture hopes,  but  we  know  that  our  efforts  will  not  be  lost.  Many  of  the 
ignorant,  who  either  out  of  love  of  routine  or  simplicity  of  soul  now 
anathematize  us,  will  end  by  associating  themselves  with  our  cause. 
For  every  man  whom  circumstances  permit  to  join  as  freely,  hundreds 
are  hindered  by  the  hard  necessities  of  life  from  openly  avowing  their 
opinions,  but  they  listen  from  afar  and  cheris^h  our  words  in  the  treasury 
of  their  hearts.  We  know  that  we  are  defending  the  cause  of  the  poor, 
the  disinherited,  the  suffering  ;  we  are  seeking  to  restore  to  them  the 
earth,  personal  rights,  confidence  in  the  future ;  and  is  it  not  natural  that 
they  should  encourage  us  by  look  and  gesture,  even  when  they  dare  not 
come  to  us?  In  times  of  trouble,  when  the  iron  hand  of  might  loosens 
its  hold,  and  paralyzed  rulers  reel  under  the  weight  of  their  own  power; 
when  the  "  groups,"  freed  for  an  instant  from  the  pressure  above,  reform 
themselves  according  to  their  natural  affinities,  on  which  side  will  be  the 
many?  Though  making  no  pretension  to  prophetic  insight,  may  we 
not  venture  without  temerity  to  say  that  the  great  multitude  would  join 
our  ranks?  Albeit  they  never  weary  of  repeating  that  anarchism 
is  merely  the  dream  of  a  few  visionaries,  do  not  even  our  enemies,  by 
the  insults  they  heap  upon  us  and  the  projects  and  machinations  they 
impute  to  us,  make  an  incessant  propaganda  in  our  favor?  It  is  said 
that  when  the  magicians  of  the  middle  ages  wanted  to  raise  the  devil, 
they  began  their  incantations  by  painting  his  image  on  a  wall.  For  a 
long  time  past  modern  exorcists  have  adopted  a  similar  method  for  con- 
juring anarchists. 

Pending  the  great  work  of  the  coining  time,  and  to  the  end  that 
this  work  may  be  accomplished,  it  behooves  us  to  utilize  every  opportu- 
nity for  rede  and  deed.  Meanwhile,  although  our  object  is  to  live  with- 
out government  and  without  law,  we  are  obliged,  in  many  things,  to 


246  "^ME    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

submit.  On  the  other  hand,  how  often  are  we  enabled  to  disregard  their 
behests  ai^d  act  on  our  own  free  will?  Ours  be  it  to  let  slip  none  of 
these  occasions,  and  to  accept  tranquilly  whatever  personal  consequences 
may  result  from  doing  that  which  we  believe  to  be  our  duty.  In  no  case 
will  we  strengthen  authority  by  appeals  or  petitions,  neither  shall  we 
sanction  the  law  by  demanding  justice  from  the  courts,  nor  by  giving 
our  votes  and  influence  to  any  candidate  whatsoever,  become  the  authors 
of  our  own  ill-fortune.  It  is  also  easy  for  us  to  accept  nothing  fron 
power,  to  call  no  man  '' master,"  neither  to  be  called  "  master  "  ourselves, 
to  remain  in  the  ranks  as  simple  citizens  and  to  maintain  resolutely,  and 
in  every  circumstance,  our  quality  of  equal  among  equals.  Let  our 
friends  judge  us  by  our  deeds,  and  reject  from  among  them  those  of  us 
who  falter. 

There  are  unquestionably  many  kind-hearted  men  that,  as  yet,  hold 
themselves  aloof  from  us,  and  even  view  our  efforts  with  a  certain  appre-- 
hension,  who  would  nevertheless  gladly  lend  us  their  help  were  they  not 
repelled  by  fear  of  the  violence  which  almost  invariably  accompanies^ 
revolution.  And  yet  a  close  study  of  the  present  state  of  things  would 
show  them  that  the  supposed  period  of  tranquility  in  which  we  live  is 
really  an  age  of  cruelty  and  violence.  Not  to  speak  of  war  and  its 
crimes,  from  the  guilt  of  which  no  civilized  State  is  free,  can  it  be  denied 
that  chief  among  the  consequences  of  the  existing  social  system  are 
murder,  maladies  and  death?  Accustomed  order  is  maintained  by  rude 
deeds  and  brute  force,  yet  things  that  happen  every  day  and  every  hour 
pass  unperceived;  we  see  in  them  a  series  of  ordinary  events  no  more 
phenomenal  than  times  and  seascms.  It  seems  no  less  than  impious  to 
rebel  against  the  cycle  of  violence  and  repression  which  comes  to  us  hal- 
lowed  by  the  sanction  of  ages.  Far  from  desiring  to  replace  an  era  of 
happiness  and  peace  by  an  age  of  disorder  and  warfare,  our  sole  aim  is 
to  put  an  end  to  the  endless  series  of  calamities  which  has  hitherto  been 
called,  by  common  consent,  *'  The  progress  of  civilization."  On  the 
other  hand,  vengeances  are  the  inevitable  incidents  of  a  period  of  violent 
changes.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  they  should  be.  Albeit 
deeds  of  violence,  prompted  by  a  spirit  of  hatred,  bespeak  a  feeble  moral 
development,  these  deeds  become  fatal  and  necessary  whenever  the  rela- 
tions between  man  and  man  are  not  the  relations  of  perfect  equity.  The 
original  form  of  justice,  as  understood  by  primitive  peoples,  was  that  of 
retaliation,  and  by  thousands  of  rude  tribes  this  system  is  still  observed. 
Nothing  seemed  more  just  than  to  offset  one  wrong  by  a  like  wrong. 
Eye  for  eye!  Tooth  for  tooth  I  If  the  blood  of  one  man  has  been  shed, 
another  must  die!  This  was  the  barbarous  form  of  justice.  Inourciv-^ 
ilized  societies  it  is  forbidden  to  individuals  to  take  the  law  into  their 
own  hands.  Governments,  in  their  quality  of  social  delegates^  are 
charged,  on  behalf  of  the  community,  with  the  enforcement  of  justice, 
a  sort  of  retaliation  somewhat  more  enlightened  than  that  of  the  sav- 
age. It  is  on  this  condition  that  the  individual  renounces  the  right  of 
personal  vengeance;  but  if  he  be  deceived  by  the  mandatories  to  whom 
he  entrusts  the  vindication  of  his  rights,  if  he  perceives  that  his  agents 
betray  his  cause  and  league  themselves  with  his  oppressors,  that  official 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  ^^47 

justice  aggravates  his  wrongs;  in  a  word,  if  whole  classes  and  popula- 
tions are  unfairly  used,  and  have  no  hope  of  finding,  in  the  society  to 
which  they  belong,  a  redresser  of  abuses,  is  it  not  certain  that  they  will 
resume  their  inherent  right  of  vengeance  and  execute  it  without  pity? 
Is  not  this  indeed  an  ordinance  of  nature,  a  consequence  of  the  physical 
law  of  shock  and  counter-shock?  It  were  unphilosophic  to  be  surprised 
by  its  existence.     Oppression  has  always  bi'en  answered  by  violence. 

Nevertheless,  if  great  hunir.n  evolutions  are  always  followed  by  sad 
outbreaks  of  personal  hatreds,  it  is  not  to  these  bad  passions  that  well- 
wishers  of  their  kind  appeal  when  they  wish  to  arouse  the  motive  vir- 
tues of  enthusiasm,  devotion  and  generosity.  If  changes  had  no  other 
result  than  to  punish  oppressors,  to  make  them  suffer  in  their  turn,  to 
repay  evil  with  evil,  the  transformation  would  be  only  in  seeming. 
^-V  hat  boots  it  to  him  who  truly  loves  humanity  and  desires  the  happi- 
ness of  all,  that  the  slave  becomes  master,  that  the  master  is  reduced  to 
servitude,  that  the  whip  changes  hands,  and  that  money  passes  from  one 
pocket  to  another?  It  is  not  the  rich  and  the  powerful  whom  we  devote 
to  destruction,  but  the  institutions  which  have  favored  the  birth  and 
growth  of  these  malevolent  beings.  It  is  the  medium  which  it  behooves 
us  to  alter,  and  for  this  great  work  we  must  reserve  all  our  strength;  to 
waste  it  in  personal  vindications  were  merest  puerility.  ''Vengeance  is 
the  pleasure  of  the  gods,"  said  the  ancients;  but  it  is  not  the  pleasure  of 
self-respecting  mortals;  for  they  know  that  to  become  their  own 
avengers  would  be  to  lower  themselves  to  the  level  of  their  former 
oppressors.  If  we  would  rise  superior  to  our  adversary,  we  must,  after 
vanquishing  him,  make  him  bless  his  defeat.  The  revolutionary  device, 
"  For  our  liberty  and  far  yours,"  must  not  be  an  empty  word. 

The  peopl3  in  all  times  have  felt  this;  and  after  every  temporary 
triumph  the  generosity  of  the  victor  has  obliterated  the  menaces  of  the 
past.  It  is  a  constant  fact  that  in  all  serious  popular  movements,  made 
for  an  idea,  hope  of  a  better  time,  and  above  all,  the  sense  of  a  new  dig- 
nity, fills  the  soul  with  high  and  magnanimous  sentiments.  So  soon  a? 
the  police,  both  political  and  civil,  cease  their  functions  and  the  masses 
become  masters  of  the  streets,  the  moral  atmosphere  changes,  each  feels 
himself  responsible  for  the  prosperity  and  contentment  of  all;  molesta- 
tion of  individuals  is  almost  unheard  of;  even  prjfessional  criminals 
pause  in  their  sad  career,  for  they  toofeel  that  something  great  is  passing 
through  the  air.  Ah!  if  revolutionaries,  instead  of  obeying  a  vague 
idea,  as  they  have  almost  always  done,  had  formed  a  definite  aim,  a  well- 
considered  scheme  of  social  conduct,  if  they  had  firmly  willed  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  new  order  of  things,  in  which  every  citizen  might  be 
assured  bread,  work,  instruction,  and  the  free  development  of  his  being, 
there  would  have  been  no  danger  in  opening  all  prison  gates  to  their  full 
width  and  saying  to  the  unfortunates  whom  they  shut  in,  "  Go,  broth- 
ers, and  sin  no  more." 

It  is  always  to  the  nobler  part  of  man  that  we  should  address  our- 
selves when  we  want  to  do  great  deeds.  A  general  fighting  for  a  bad 
cause  stimulates  his  soldiers  with  promises  of  booty,  a  benevolent  man 
who  cherishes  a  noble  object  encourages  his  companions  by  the  example 


248  '^'""    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

of  his  own  devotion  and  self-sacrilice.  For  him  faith  in  his  idea  is 
enough.  As  says  the  proverb  of  the  Danish  peasant:  "His  will  is  his 
paradise."  What  matters  it  that  he  is  treated  as  a  visionary.  Even 
though  his  undertaking  were  only  a  ciiimera,  he  knows  nothing  more 
beautiful  and  sweet  than  the  desire  to  act  rightly  and  do  good;  in  com- 
parison with  this,  vulgar  realities  are  for  him  but  shadows,  the  appari- 
tions of  an  instant. 

But  our  ideal  is  not  a  chimera.  This,  public  opinion  well  knows; 
for  no  question  more  preoccupies  it  than  that  of  social  transformation. 
Events  are  casting  their  shadows  before.  Among  men  who  think  is 
there  one  who  in  some  fashion  or  another  is  not  a  socialist — that  is  to 
say,  who  has  not  his  own  little  scheme  for  changes  in  economical  rela- 
tions ?  Even  the  orator  who  noisily  denies  that  there  is  a  social  question 
affirms  the  contrary  by  a  thousand  propositions.  And  those  who  would 
lead  us  back  to  the  middle  ages,  are  they  not  also  socialists  ?  They 
think  they  have  found  in  a  past,  restored  after  modern  ideas,  conditions 
of  social  justice  which  will  establish  forever  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
All  are  awaiting  the  birth  of  a  new  order  of  things;  all  ask  themselves, 
some  with  misgiving,  others  with  hope,  what  the  morrow  wiil  bring 
forth.  It  will  not  come  with  empty  hands.  The  century  which  has 
witnessed  so  many  grand  discoveries  in  the  world  of  science  cannot  pass 
away  without  giving  us  still  greater  conquests.  Industrial  appliances,  that 
by  a  single  electric  impulse  make  the  same  thought  vibrate  through  five 
continents,  have  distanced  by  far  our  social  morals,  which  are  yet  in 
many  regards  the  outcome  of  reciprocally  hostile  interests.  The  {ixis  is 
displaced;  the  world  must  crack  that  its  equilibrium  may  be  restored. 
In  spirit  revolution  is  ready;  it  is  already  thought — it  is  already  willed; 
it  only  remains  to  realize  it,  and  this  is  not  the  most  difficult  part  of  the 
work.  The  governments  of  Europe  will  soon  have  reached  the  limits 
to  the  expansion  of  their  power  and  find  themselves  face  to  face  with 
their  increasing  populations.  The  superabundant  activity  which  wastes 
itself  in  distant  wars  must  then  find  employment  at  home — unless  in  their 
folly  the  shepherds  of  the  people  should  try  to  exhaust  their  energies  by 
setting  Europeans  against  Europeans,  as  they  have  so  often  done  before. 
It  is  true  that  in  this  way  they  may  retard  the  solution  of  the  social 
problem,  but  it  will  arise  again  after  each  postponement,  more  formida- 
ble than  before. 

Let  economists  and  rulers  invent  political  constitutions  or  salaried 
organizations,  whereby  the  workman  may  be  made  the  friend  of  his 
master,  the  subject  the  brother  of  his  potentate,  we,  "frightful  an- 
archists "  as  we  are,  know  only  one  way  of  establishing  peace  and  good- 
will among  men — the  suppression  of  privilege  and  the  recognition  of 
right.  Our  ideal,  as  we  have  said,  is  that  of  the  fraternal  equity  for 
which  all  yearn,  but  almost  always  as  a  dream;  with  us  it  takes  form 
and  becomes  a  concrete  reality.  It  pleases  us  not  to  live  if  the  enjoy- 
ments of  life  are  to  be  for  us  alone;  we  protest  against  our  good  fortune 
if  we  may  not  share  it  with  others;  it  is  sweeter  for  us  to  wander  with 
the  wretched  and  the  outcast  than  to  sit  crowned  with  roses,  at  the 
banquets  of  the  rich.     AVe  are  weary  of  these  inequalities  which  make 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OK    ANARCHISM.  ]^49 

US  the  enemies  of  each  other;  we  would  put  an  end  to  the  furies  which 
are  ever  bringing  men  into  hostile  collision,  and  all  of  which  arise  from 
the  bondage  of  the  weak  to  the  strong  under  the  form  of  slavery, 
serfage  and  service.  After  so  much  hatred  we  long  to  love  each  other, 
and  for  this  reason  are  we  enemies  of  private  property  and  despisers  of 
the  law. 

Elisee  Reclus. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Dyer   D.  Lum  on^  Anarchy. 

[From  the  Alarm. J 


I — WHAT   IS    ANARCHY. 

The  statesman,  intent  on  schemes  to  compromise  principles  and  tide 
over  clamorous  demands  for  justice,  says  it  is  disorder  and  spoliation. 
New  taxes  are  then  levied  to  defend  the  state,  to  repress  incendiary  talk, 
and  protect  privileged  prerogatives.  Or  false  and  surface  issues  are  pre- 
pared to  distract  attention,  to  embroil  citizens  in  partisan  quarrels,  and 
furnsh  new  offices  for  the  spoils-hunter.  The  people  pay  the  bills  and 
the  statesman  remains. 

The  priest,  intent  on  saving  souls,  and  setting  less  value  on  tem- 
poral things — for  others — says  it  is  abolition  of  marriage,  atheism,  and 
draws  a  frightful  picture  of  a  state  wherein  his  voice  would  be  derided, 
yet  ever  careful  to  bring  no  testimony  to  corroborate  his  dismal  fore- 
l3odings  of  social  chaos. 

The  financier,  intent  on  new  schemes  for  manipulating  public  credit 
to  personal  ends,  says  it  means  ''a  dividing  up";  that  the  lazy  and 
worthless  want  to  shaKe  with  the  industrious  and  honest  the  fruits  of 
industry;  and  thousands  believe  it  and  never  think  to  ask  whether  any 
one  ever  saw  an  anarchist  who  believed  in  this  fancied  ''  divvy."' 

The  landlord,  comfortably  collecting  toll  for  the  use  of  land  from 
those  who  have  been  placed  upon  this  earth,  says  it  is  the  destruction  of 
the  foundation  and  framework  of  society  and  removal  of  all  incentive 
to  progress  and  then  proceeds  to  invest  tolls  received  in  fresh  acres. 

The  merchant  seeking  by  every  means  to  obtain  a  monopoly  of  the 
market,  says  it  is  the  negation  of  freedom,  a  gigantic  despotism  in  which 
life  would  be  burdened  with  prison  rules  and  social  intercourse  regulated 
with  clock -like  regularity. 

One  and  all  incessantly  dinning  this  into  the  public  ear,  their  cry 
re-echoed  by  that  social  prostitute,  the  '•  able  editor,"  in  whose  sheet 
their  respective  callings  are  advertised,  the  timid  shrink  from  the  word, 
women  grow  pale,  and  children  learn  to  believe  an  anarchist  is  a  first 
cousin  to  Old  Nick.     And,  laughing  in  their  sleeves  over  their  success. 


250  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM. 

the  statesman  lays  pipe  for  a  re-election ,  the  priest  pictures  another 
world  where  corner  lots  have  no  speculative  value,  the  financier  busies 
himself  in  cutting  coupons  and  computing  interest,  the  landlord  in  fig- 
uring how  soon  he  may  safely  raise  rents,  the  merchant  in  converting 
^'  surplus  values  "  into  profits. 

In  the  tenement  house  human  beings  are  huddled  like  sheep  in  a 
pen;  in  the  factories  women  and  children  crowd  out  husbands  and 
fathers;  in  the  potter's  field  trenches  are  continually  opened  and  filled; 
in  the  cities  vice  and  crime  are  spreading  gaudy  attractions  for  idle  feet; 
in  the  country  able  bodied  men  vainly  seek  employment;  men  grow  dis- 
heartened and  sullen,  women  overworked  and  cross,  girls  and  boys 
dejected  and  lost.  Yet  while  rent  and  interest  are  collected  and  profits 
amassed  society  is  safe  and  law  and  order  secure,  though 

Our  fathers  are  praying  for  pauper  pay, 

Our  mothers  with  Death's  kiss  are  white; 
Our- sons  are  the  rich  man's  serfs  by  day, 

And  our  daughters  his  slaves  by  night. 

Yet  anarchy  will  not  down,  but  continues  to  gain  adherents,  and 
says  to  the  statesman:  Your  surface  issues  are  dead  and  party  questions 
misguiding.  We  ask  justice,  and  would  stop  the  spoliation  from  which 
we  have  so  long  suffered.  Producing  all;  we  too  often  lack  food  and 
warmth  and  clothing.  Where  all  are  prosperous  the  state  must  be  so 
too,  and  until  we  are  state  interests  are  of  secondary  importance  to  us. 

It  says  to  the  priest:  There  can  be  no  healthful  organization  of  the 
moral  'forces  while  poverty  sets  at  our  hearths  and  vice  beckons  our 
youth  to  gayer  scenes  than  home  can  afford.  Give  us  freedom  from  un- 
requited toil  and  enforced  destitution  and  our  emotional  natures  will 
warm  into  unity  from  higher  aspirations. 

It  says  to  the  financier:  Your  function  in  society  should  not  be 
determined  by  monopoly,  but  under  equal  opportunities.  Your  privi- 
leges are  our  restrictions;  your  charters  our  disfranchisement.  We  de- 
mand freedom  to  co-operate  in  financial  as  in  other  matters;  to  co-op- 
erate for  mutual  banking  as  well  as  for  mutual  insurance;  and  when 
you  are  shorn  of  privileges  we  may  co-operate  to  base  credit  upon  all 
wealth  as  well  as  on  that  you  would  dictate,  for  equal  opportunities 
would  destroy  your  prerogative  to  fashion  and  control  a  medium  of 
exchange.  Justice  would  reign  and  interest  cease,  because  it  could  not 
be  exacted. 

It  says  to  thelandlord:  Equal  opportunities  give  you  no  monopoly 
of  the  soil.  Again,  monopoly  has  conferred  a  chartered  right  and  men 
are  disinherited.  Destroy  this  chartered  privilege  and  strong  arms  will 
labor  with  joy  and  find  in  mutua'l  credit  new  avenues  to  invade  the  prov- 
ince of  nature.  Co-operation  would  enlarge  production,  extend  con- 
sumption, and  equalize  distribution.  Overproduction  and  undercon- 
sumption would  become  myths,  and  demand  would  seek  supply  with 
unfailing  regularity  without  other  guarantee  than  absence  of  restric- 
toin. 

•   It  says  to  the  merchant:     Exchange  is  a  social  function,  and,  m 


THE   PHILOSOPHY    OF   ANARCHISM.  151 

the  absence  of  the  monopolies  of  money  and  land,  labor,  free  from 
artificial  restriction,  free  to  co-operate  in  mutual  banking  to  organize 
credit  based  on  all  products,  thus  free  to  connect  use  with  possession  of 
soil,  free  from  the  enforced  payment  of  interest  for  monopoly 
money,  free  from  enforced  payment  of  rent  for  production,  would 
through  co-operation  organize  exchanges  and  leave  you  free  to  whistle 
for  profits. 

To  them  all  it  says:  Gentlemen,  we  ask  no  privilege,  we  propose 
no  restriction;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  will  we  permit  it.  We  have  no 
new  shackles  to  propose,  we  seek  emancipation  from  shackles.  We  ask 
no  legislative  sanction,  for  co-operation  asks  only  for  a  free  field  and  no 
favors;  neither  will  we  peimit  their  interference. 

It  asserts  that  in  freedom  of  the  social  nnit  lies  the  freedom  of  the 
social  state. 

It  asserts  that  in  freedom  to  the  capitalization  of  all  acquired 
wealth  lies  social  advancement  and  the  death  of  interest. 

It  asserts  that  in  freedom  to  possess  and  utilize  soil  lies  social  liap- 
piness  and  progress  and  the  death  of  rent. 

It '  asserts  that  in  freedom  to  co-operate  the  labor  exchange  will 
displace  the  penny-pinching  tradesmen  and  prove  the  death  of  profits. 

It  asserts  that  in  freedom  from  restriction  co-operation  will  result, 
and  in  free  co-operation  capital  will  seek  labor  as  well  as  provide  guar- 
antees for  security. 

K  asserts  that  order  can  only  exist  where  liberty  prevails,  and  that 
progress  leads  and  never  follows  order. 

It  asserts,  finally,  that  this  emancipation  will  inaugurate  liberty, 
equality,  fraternity. 


n. — WHAT   ANARCHY   OFFERS. 

The  world  of  activity  is  one  of  inducements.  Why  should  I  do 
thus  or  so?  Because  my  highest  interests  are  concerned.  To  follow  a 
given  course,  to  advocate  certain  measures,  there  must  be  sufficient 
inducement  therein  to  satisfy  my  mind  that  such  is  for  my  interest  to  do 
80.  We  propose  no  change  in  human  nature,  we  take  it  as  we  find 'it. 
and  ask:  Does  anarchism  offer  any  inducements  superior  to  those  of 
the  present  system?  Can  self-interest  see  any  advantage  in  the  change? 
It  is  a  question  of  comparison,  of  weighing  of  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages.    Self-interest  shall  be  umpire. 

Let  us  see  what  are  the  inducements  now  offered,  what  are  the 
prizes  in  the  lottery  of  life,  and  the  chances  of  winning  them.  We 
find  men  placed  upon  earth  dependent  upon  labor  for  enjoyment  of  life. 
In  our  zone  nature  withholds  her  gifts  and  makes  them  the  reward  of 
exertion.  Every  faculty  of  individuality  is  thus  aroused  to  exertion 
and  self-reliance  developed.     We  do  not  pluck  and  eat,  but  labor  and 


152  THE    PHILOSOPHY      OF    ANARCHISM. 

develop  natural  resources,  and  hence  provide.  Herein  lies  the  cause  of 
progress,  of  civilization.  Natural  conditions  must  be  accepted  and  our 
activity  governed  in  accordance  therewith. 

But  at  the  first  glance  we  see  that  our  efforts  are  limited  by  artifi- 
cial regulations.  Nature  has  placed  us  upon  the  earth,  but  we  are 
denied  its  use  for  productive  purposes.  We  find  the  source  of  all  pro- 
duction resting  in  land,  and  on  every  lot  we  find  the  placard:  "  Taken."' 
Nature's  gift  has  been  monopolized,  and  artificial  conditions  are  first  to 
be  surmounted  before  access  can  be  had  to  the  use  of  soil.  Held,  not 
for  use,  but  for  sale,  it  assumes  a  speculative  value.  Have  you  a  lot,  a 
homestead  left  to  you?  This  speculative  value  extends  over  to  it,  in- 
creases your  taxes,  places  a  fine  upon  all  improvements,  and  where  such 
are  made  requires  increased  exertions  to  meet  new  exactions.  Society 
says  that  you  have  no  natural  right  to  the  soil.  The  right  to  produce 
must  be  bought.  You  must  first  accumulate  through  production  before 
you  can  have  access  to  the  source  of  production,  hence  you  must  crave 
employment.  You  must  realize  sufiicient  profits  from  the  sale  of  time 
or  products  before  you  can  purchase  the  right  to  produce  for  yourself. 
Therefore,  you  work  for  others,  and  from  the  values  you  create  there  is 
diverted  one  part  to  the  owner  of  land,  from  whom  you  purchase  the 
right  to  remain  on  earth,  under  the  form  of  rent,  and  another  portion 
to  the  employer  as  inducement  for  giving  you  employment,  instead  of 
starving,  under  the  form  of  profits.  After  these  requirements  are  met 
you  receive  wages.  And  were  we  studying  political  economy  instead  of 
glancing  at  some  of  its  salient  points,  it  would  be  seen  that  this  applies 
as  well  to  the  farmer  as  to  the  laborer. 

The  laborer's  wages  are  paid  in  the  form  of  money,  the  current 
medium  of  exchange.  Advancement  lies  in  saving,  in  economy,  in 
postponement  of  marriage,  in  accumulating  money  by  which  privilege 
may  be  purchased  or  capital  secured.  Possession  of  land  is  not  enough; 
there  must  be  joined  to  it  ability  to  use.  But  labor  saved  is  only  wealth 
till  turned  to  reproductive  use,  when  it  becomes  capital.  But  here, 
again,  artificial  conditions  are  introduced.  Society  in  its  wisdom 
having  priviles^ed  the  landlord,  now  grants  prerogatives  to  the  cap- 
italist. It  limits  the  medium  of  exchangv-^  to  a  particular  form  of 
wealth.  All  credit  must  flow  through  a  specified  sluice.  A,  B,  and  C 
seek  through  co-operation  to  escape  from  the  necessity  of  working  for 
others.  A  has  wealth  saved  in  a  house;  B  has  wealth  saved  in 
machinery ;  C  has  wealth  saved  in  products;  all  having  equal  exchangeable 
value.  But  their  wealth  had  cannot  be  capitalized  into  wealth  used, 
save  by  purchasing  monopoly  money.  As  a  basis  for  mutual  credit  it  is 
valueless;  as  a  basis  for  sale  or  mortgage  it  can  command  money,  be 
capitalized.  Thus  by  this  privilege  conferred  upon  one  form  of  wealth 
to  constitute  the  sole  medium  of  exchange  and  basis  for  credit  another 
toll  is  laid  upon  industry  in  the  form  of  ^interest. 

All  these  artificial  complications  by  which  the  surplus  value  of  pro- 
duction is  diverted  from  the  producer  into  the  coffers  of  the,  so  to 
speak,  complicators  of  normal  social  relations  require  the  support  of  the 
source  of  interf erf:':!ico,  hence  taxation  claims  its  share  before  the  residual. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  15jJ 

sum  is  dealt  out  as  wages.  Therefore  it  is  that,  as  under  slavery  and 
serfdom,  the  producer  works  for  as  little  as  may  be  necessary  to  support 
him.  The  competition  of  labor  for  privilege  to  live  keeps  the  minimum 
of  wages  at  the  line  of  cost  of  subsistence,  while  taxation,  profits,  and 
rent  have  no  determinable  limit.  Labor,  lying  under  all  these  super- 
imposed burdens,  paying  all  these  exactions,  is  necessarily  remunerated 
by  this  iron  law  or  wages.  Anarchism  must  offer  emancipation  from 
this  enforced  subjection  of  labor  to  land  and  capital,  and,  logically,  in 
proclaiming  emancipation  it  must  proclaim  freedom  to  the  oppressed — 
liberty ! 

Emancipation  from  the  thralldom  of  man  to  land;  the  individual 
right  to  possession  and  use,  carrying  with  it  the  right  to  co-operate  for 
guaranteeing  security  and  protection.  Emancipation  from  the  thrall- 
dom of  man  to  capital,  the  individual  right  to  utilize  all  wealth,  and 
the  right  through  co-operation  to  organize  mutual  credit  with  the 
same  facility  we  are  now  graciously  permitted  in  mutual  insurance. 

Emancipation  from  bondage  to  rent  would  base  all  titles  upon 
occupancy  and  use;  would  open  avenues  of  escape  to  the  toiler,  and  in 
nowise  limit  the  farmer's  capacity  to  produce,  nor  his  ability  to  enjoy 
the  reward  thereof.  In  increased  production,  application  to  labor 
would  be  lightened,  the  necessity  for  struggle  lessened,  an  inflation  of 
wealth  would  ensue,  distribution  be  more  equitably  adjusted,  and  natural 
right  to  a  footing  on  earth  receive  social  sanction  and,  through 
co-operation,  social  guarantee. 

Emancipation  from  bondage  to  interest  would  join  means  to  pos- 
session of  the  source  of  production.  Co-operative  effort  would  offer 
sanction  to  co-operative  credit,  and  in  freedom  to  capitalize  all  products 
interest  would  be  abolished  in  the  sam^  sense  as  petroleum  "  abolished  " 
candles. 

Labor^  free  from  the  exactions  of  speculative  rent,  and  released 
from  necessity  to  buy  a  monopolized  medium  of  exchange,  would  offer 
as  inducements  to  exertion : 

Opportunity  to  freely  enjoy  the  fruits  of  industry  without  paying- 
toll. 

Opportunity  to  the  endless  increase  of  wants  and  means  to  wrest 
from  nature  their  supply. 

Opportunity  to  the  use  of  all  wealth  had  in  the  extension  of  pro- 
ductive activity. 

Opportunity  to  freely  co-operate  to  secure: 
1.  Protection  and  security  from  invasion  of  these  natural  rights. 
2.  Insurance  against  depredation  and  risks.  3.  A  medium  of 
exchange  based  upon  wealth  saved,  having  social  sanction,  discharging 
social  functions,  and  serving  social  ends.  4.  The  organization  of 
labor  exchanges  from  which  profits  would  have  fled  to  join  rent  and 
interest.  5.  The  organization  of  all  forms  of  activity,  and  thus  release 
from  enforced  taxation. 

In  short,  where  capital  setks  labor  where  supply  waits  upon 
demand,  where  order  follows  progress,  where  authority  dissolves  under 
the  genial  glow  of  liberty,  and  necessity  for  wage-labor  disappears. 


J54  '^^^    PHILOSOPHY   OF    ANARCHISM. 

The  present  system  offers  government  to  defend  privilege. 
Anarchist-socialism  offers  co-operation  to  extend  opportunities.  The  one, 
in  making  co-operation  compulsory  and  fostering  privilege,  sets  a 
premium  upon  greed  and  culminates  in  tyranny.  The  other,  in 
removing  privilege,  places  a  premium  upon  voluntary  co-operation,  and 
tends  to  eliminate  greed. 


III. — WHO   SHOULD   BE  ANARCHISTS? 

First,  we  might  ask:  Why  should  there  be  any?  Are  not  our 
cities  filled  with  evidences  of  ceaseless  traffic  ?  Is  not  capital  ever  on  the 
alert  for  investment  in  profitable  enterprises?  Are  not  our  western 
towns  rivaling  each  other  in  "  booms  "  in  real  estate,  thus  testifying  to 
increasing  revival  of  business?  Is  not  the  army  of  the  unemployed 
steadily  diminishing,  and  demand  for  labor  increasing?  Are  not  our 
public  documents  teeming  with  statistical  columns  showing  national 
prosperity?  The  building  trades  find  employment  in  building  new  and 
grander  palaces;  in  their  decoration  and  furnishing  an  army  of  skilled 
employes  find  remunerative  labor;  in  the  clothing  and  adornment  of 
their  inmates  thousands  are  fed  and  clothed.  On  every  hand  new 
church  spires  arise,  as  if  to  serve  as  exclamation  points  to  the  astonish- 
ment which  the  voice  of  anarchy  arouses. 

Festive  revelries  were  never  more  frequent;  people  marry  and  are 
given  in  marriage,  and  display  to  reporters  the  bridal  gifts;  luxury  is 
creating  new  demands  upon  industry;  salaries  of  officials  and  popular 
preachers  are  raised,  and  pews  sell  at  a  higher  premium;  in  fact,  every- 
thing goes  as  n^erry  as  a  marriage  bell  were  it  not  for  the  discordant 
note  of  frequent  strikes. 

Ah!  Here  is  a  depth  which  statistical  compilations  of  productions 
and  exports  does  not  reach,  it  seems.  Let  us  peer  beneath  the  veneering 
of  "  national  prosperity,"  and  see  if  the  structure  be  sound  or  worm- 
eaten.  Let  us  see  if  the  gilded  rays  of  boulevard  prosperity  radiates 
into  tenement-denizened  streets  and  ^'nigger  alley";  whether  the  magic 
wand  of  the  speculative  genie  of  the  business  boom  has  transformed 
these  humble  homes. 

Alas!  to  ask  is  to  answer;  the  toiler  still  delves  on  in  his  weary 
tread-mill  round,  and  finds  advancing  age  but  brings  added  cares  and 
disquietudes.  To  him  the  business  boom  and  national  prosperity  are 
only  visible  when  seen  recapitulated  in  the  eloquent  words  which  flow 
from  the  "able editor's"  prostitute  pen. 

In  his  thinking  monif^nts  the  artisan  dreams  of  a  co-operative  so- 
ciety in  which  freemen  will  combine  to  wrest  from  nature  her  hidden 
wealth,  in  which  liberty  to  labor  will  no  longer  be  restricted  as  a  boon 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 


155 


to  cravf ,  in  which  with  manly  independence,  he  may  look  forward  to 
the  calmer  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  industry  in  old  age.  Nor  stands 
he  alone.  Tlie  farmer  wonders  if  his  mortgage  will  ever  be  paid.  The 
tradesman  asks  whether  life  has  no  other  aim  than  the  constant  neces- 
sity of  counting  pennies.  The  clerk  thinks  that  there  cannot  be  room 
at  the  top  for  all,  and  what  if  he  should  miss  his  hold  on  the  ladder? 

Through  all  grades  of  society  unrest  prevails,  because  in  all  suc- 
cess depends  upon  ability  or  craft  to  climb  over  the  fallen  forms  of 
your  associates;  to  rise  out  of  the  slough  by  using  them  as  stepping- 
stones,  though  every  upward  step  plunges  them  deeper  into  the  abyss. 

Modern  society,  monarchical,  parliamentary,  and  republican  alike, 
cries  with  one  voice:  Law  and  order  first  and  foremost,  liberty  and 
progress  secondary  and  resultant.  Anarchy  says:  Not  so;  law  must  not 
deny  liberty,  order  must  not  precede  progress;  they  are  causes,  not  re- 
sults. It  proclaims  progress  first,  to  which  order  must  adapt  itself; 
liberty  at  all  times,  over  which  law  has  no  control. 

It  whispers  to  the  artisan,  the  laborer,  the  miner,  the  factory  hand, 
the  farmer,  the  tradesman,  the  clerk,  to  all  whose  hearts  have  not  been 
seared  by  the  blighting  hand  of  successful  greed:  Your  happiness  lies  in 
freedom  from  artificial  restrictions,  not  in  strife  for  privilege. 

Look  over  the  broad  fields  teeming  with  golden  grain  and  then  at 
the  numberless  acres  held  by  speculators  to  extort  from  human  neces- 
sity an  onerous  toll  as  prerequisite  condition  to  their  use  to  further 
increase  production.  Look  over  the  crowded  human  bee-hives  where  the 
toilers  jostle  each  other  and  then  at  the  vacant  lots  surrounding  them, 
serving  but  as  receptacles  for  broken  crockery.  Ask  yourselves  by  what 
title  deed  has  the  landlord  disinherited  you  from  nature's  estate?  Has 
God  set  his  seal  to  it?  Is  nature's  sign-manual  there?  Have  you  sur- 
rendered your  natural  claim  to  a  footing  on  earth?  Whence,  then, 
the  privilege  to  him  and  the  restriction  upon  you?  There  is  but  one 
answer:  The  law  so  ordains! 

You  dream  of  co-operation,  but  when  you  essay  it  you  find  rent 
and  interest  as  firmly  seated  astride  your  shoulders  as  was  the  Old  Man 
of  the  Sea  upon  Sinbad.  Not  only  are  you  denied  possession  of  the 
source  of  production — land — but  monopoly  also  steps  in  to  dictate 
upon  what  conditions  you  may  have  the  means  of  production  by  con- 
ferring the  privilege  of  capital  on  a  certain  form  of  wealth  only.  Your 
buildings,  your  machinery,  your  products,  your  possessions,  the  reward 
of  honest  industry,  may  be  used,  but  not  capitalized:  they  cannot  be 
made  the  basis  of  credit  except  in  the  terms  of  the  monopoly  money 
furnished  for  the  purpose  of  selling  to  you  permission  to  utilize  your 
own  credit.  To  the  question:  Why  is  this  so?  again  there  is  but  one 
answer:  The  law  so  ordains! 

Instead  of  praying.  From  rent  and  interest,  good  Lord,  deliver  us! 
strike  down  that  which  breathes  vitality  into  their  grasping  tentacles, 
crush  it,  throttle  it,  damn  it  like  freemen,  and  assert  your  right  to  co- 
operate in  producing  wealth  without  making  terms  with  the  land-robber, 
and  to  co-operate  to  furnish  mutual  credit  without  paying  toll  to  the 
credit  robber. 


156 


THE    PHILOSOl'HY    ANARCHISM. 


Anarchy  is  freedom  from  artificial  regulation  and  restriction ;  and 
in  freedom,  the  farmer,  as  well  as  the  artisan  and  all  the  classes  into 
which  society  is  now  divided,  will  find  that  wider  scope  to  activity  will 
brin^  increased  comfort;  and  in  freedom  to  use  of  land"  and  to  organize 
credit,  rent,  interest,  and  profits  will  disappear  together  like  bats  before 
the  dawning  light;  and  in  co-operation  find  full  security  for  wealth  at- 
tained and  opportunity  for  its  application. 

In  anarchy  labor  and  capital  would  be  merged  into  one,  for  capital 
would  be  without  prerogatives  and  dependent  upon  labor,  and  owned  by 
it.  The  laborer  would  find  that  to  produce  was  to  enjoy  and  the 
nightmare  of  destitution  banished.  The  artisan  would  find  in  co-opera- 
tion that  nature  alone  remained  to  be  exploited.  The  tradesman  would 
find  that  production  offered  greater  inducement  than  exchange,  unless 
he  accepted  a  position  of  competence  and  ease  in  the  labor  exchange 
which  would  supplant  isolated  stores.  The  clerk,  no  longer  with  his 
horizon  bounded  by  a  ribbon  counter,  would  have  full  scope  to  dis- 
play his  talents  in  any  direction.  The  farmer,  above  all,  free  from 
irksome  care  to  meet  interest,  to  dread  foreclosure  from  enforced  taxa^ 
tion,  with  his  family  growing  up  around  him,  and  rendered  secure  by  a 
common  title  and  rnutual  inter-dependence,  or  seeking  in  insurance 
indemnity  for  depredation,  would  find  in  anarchy  release  from  useless 
drudgery  and  his  labor   crowned  with  plentiness  and  peace. 

The  only  question  then  likely  to  arise  would  be:  Who  would  not 
be  an  anarchist? 


IV. CO-OPERATIOX. 

Now  that  questions  of  forms  of  faith  in  theology  and  government 
have  ceased  to  divide  men  into  hostile  factions,  that  political  as  well  as 
religious  toleration  has  become  firmly  rooted  as  a  social  virtue,  economic 
questions  rise  into  greater  importance.  Here  again  we  find  the  old 
struggle  of  past  centuries  under  new  standards;  again  liberty  is  arrayed 
against  authority  on  other  fields.  Co-operation  in  religion  has  passed 
out  of  the  field  of  strife  and  been  declared  victorious;  our  creed  is  no 
longer  dealt  to  us.  Co-operat  on  in  government  has  won  its  place  in 
the  world's  history;  our  rulers  no  longer  claim  divine  right  to  govern. 
The  scaffolding  of  past  centuries  has  brought  mankind  to  the  comple- 
tion of  the  social  structure.  Reason  and  intelligence  on  the  one  hand 
and  necessity  and  discord  on  the  other  are  instructing  them  in  its  aims 
and  preparing  them  for  the  application  of  the  requisite  means  It  is 
the  dream  of  the  toiler,  the  hope  of  the  thoughtful,  and  the  goal  of  the 
progressive  humanitarian. 

How  shall  we  substitute  co-operation  ?  Efforts  have  been  many, 
satisfactory  results  few.     ITnforseen  obstacles  are  met  to  be  overcome; 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  157 

artificial  environments  limit  freedom   of  action;   chartered  privileges 
impede  progress;  restrictions  hamper  and  clog  activity. 

Co-operation  in  the  distribution  of  products  sacrifices  the  pro- 
ducer to  the  consumer.  Buying  at  the  lowest  competition  price,  and 
following  current  trade  principles,  it  would  swell  profits  for  the  benefit 
of  customers.  If  it  tends  to  lesson  prices  the  consumer,  so  far  as  he  is 
a  producer,  but  gives  from  one  hand  what  the  other  hand  gains.  An 
English  writer  indulges  in  the  following  criticism  on  the  system: 

The  co-operative  wholesale  society  is  a  gigantic  middleman.  In  its  workshops 
it  pays  the  lowest  of  competition  wages.  In  the  language  of  one  of  the  workers  in  one 
of  the  shoe  factories:  "The  workmen  have  to  work  for  what  they  can  get;  they  know 
there  is  no  true  co-operation.*'  In  its  transactions  with  other  producers  it  pays  the 
lowest  of  competition  prices.  The  profits  made  out  of  the  retail  prices  are  distrib- 
uted among  the  members;  labor  is  depressed.  In  short,  it  is  as  far  from  displaying 
s.  single  feature  of  real  co-operation  as  any  private  trader  is  who  uses  the  weapons 
of  competition  and  capitalism  for  his  personal  ends,  regardless  of  the  interests  of 
others. 

Even  where  success  attends  the  enterprise  it  can  hardly  rank  as 
even  ameliorative.  .  The  few,  the  stockholders,  the  customers  alone 
are  its  beneficiaries;  the  great  mass  are  left,  and  further,  so  far  as 'co- 
operation lifts  a  few  out  of  the  social  slough  it  is  at  the  expense  of 
less  fortunate  fellow-creatures,  who  find  their  own  fate  more  irrevo- 
cably fixed  in  becoming  stepping-stones  upon  which  the  few  mount  to 
privileged  enjoyment.  Co-operation  to  eliminate  the  middleman  and 
retaining  rent  and  interest  is  but  a  sorry  makeshift  for  the  bright  ideal 
our  dreams  had  presaged. 

Anarachy  presents  a  wider  and  grander  view  of  co-operation  than 
that  involved  in  joint  stock  or  profit-sharing  concerns — a  view  which 
requires  no  elaborate  scaffolding  to  erect  nor  exercise  of  legislative 
authority  to  preserve.  It  seeks  no  charter,  for  it  asks  no  privileges;  it 
seeks  no  aid,  tor  it  contains  within  itself  capacity  to  provide  for  all 
needs.  All  it  asks  is  a  free  field — the  removal  of  restrictions  which 
limit  its  scope  and  deny  it  full  exercise.  And  as  it  finds  these  restric- 
tions in  legislative  sanction  given  to  privileges,  in  chartered  rights 
bestowed  upon  some,  it  demands  their  abrogation. 

It  claims  for  co-operation  of  freeinen  ability  to  discharge  any  social 
function,  and  as  production  and  exchange  are  the  principal  directions 
in  which  modern  activity  manifests  itself  it  imperatively  demands  as 
means  of  industrial  emancipation  that  neither  shall  be  endoweil  with 
privilege,  that  the  source  of  production  and  the  means  of  exchange 
cannot  be  subject  to  letters  patent. 

With  freedom  of  access  to  land,  to  hold  for  occupancy  and  use, 
resting  upon  this  common  title,  common  needs  will  draw  occupants 
and  users  to  co-operate  to  secure  what  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  in- 
dividual to  obtain.  The  common  title  would  produce  independence, 
mutual  reliance  and  organization,  and  precisely  as  privilege  was  elimi- 
nated fraternity  of  spirit  and  common  aims  would  naturally  arise. 
Co-operation  would  not  have  to  he  invented,  it  would  be  evolved;  com- 
mon needs  would  require  common  efforts,  and   whenever   union    would 


158 


THK    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 


present  benefits  unattainable  to  divided  efforts  that  moment  steps- 
toward  co-operative  unity  would  be  taken. 

But  freedom  of  land  is  not  enough.  Capital,  clad  in  the  legalized 
armor  of  monopoly,  holding  in  its  power  the  medium  of  exchange  and 
thus  imposing  a  tax  upon  its  use  as  a  means  to  further  production,  can 
well  afford  to  laugh  at  the  puny  effort  to  co-operate  and  make  it  also 
tributary  to  its  gains.  Again  anarchism  says  to  secure  perfect  co-opera- 
tion there  must  be  freedom  in  financial  as  well  as  in  other  matters.  The 
privilege  bestowed  upon  gold,  by  bestowing  upon  it  as  if  by  divine  right 
a  royal  crown  over  other  products  of  labor,  has  made  it  the  despot  of 
exchange.  Anarchy  declares  that  it  has  no  natural  right  to  the  exclu« 
sive  discharge  of  this  soc"al  function  over  any  or  all  other  products; 
that  so  far  from  facilitating  exchange  it  fastens  upon  industry  the  clog 
of  interest,  causing  all  other  wealth  to  pay  tribute  to  it  and  at  the  same 
time  regulating  values  by  a  speculative  standard.  Anarchy  asserts  that 
in  the  overthrow  of  this  old  superstition,  exploded  everywhere  else  save 
in  financial  matters,  men  will  be  thrown  upon  their  own  resources  to  or- 
ganize  mutual  credit;  that  in  co-operaton  a  medium  of  exchange  can  be 
issued  based  upon  any  and  all  forms  of  wealth  as  security,  and  that  in 
this  ability  to  capitalize  products  for  purposes  of  production  of  in- 
creased wealth  there  will  be  no  monopoly  to  command  interest  for  use. 
Anarchy,  therefore,  sees  in  emancipation  from  the  monopoly  of  land 
and  credit  the  opportunity  for  complete  and  perfect  co-operation.  Not 
a  governmental  scheme  by  which  our  functions  are  prescribed  but  a  free 
alliance  to  achieve  common  ends;  not  necessarily  a  unity  in  one  na- 
tional association,  but  co-operation  for  local  or  national  ends,  just  as 
the  need  arises,  confident  that  under  equal  opportunities  that  which  best 
discharges  its  social  function  will  best  commend  itself  for  support. 

The  great  trouble  is  that  we  have  so  long  been  nursed  that  we 
are  not  yet  fully  aware  of  our  own  capacities.  So  much  have  we 
been  dominated  by  the  state  that  we  have  not  encouraged  self-reliance. 
If,  however,  freedom  is  preferable  to  restrictions  co-operation  can  only 
be  secured  by  the  joint  efforts  of  free  individuals,  and  just  so  far  as  the 
social  units  are  emancipated  from  restriction  so  far  will  society  reflect 
that  liberty;  just  so  far  as  the  individuals  are  happy,  prosperous,  and 
moral,  so  far  only  will  society  be  happy,  prosperous,  and  moral.  Social 
virtues  are  results,  not  causes. 

Liberty,  therefore,  is  the  basis  upon  which  true  co-operation  rests. 
To  remove  the  shackles  from  individual  activity  in  order  that  co-opera- 
tive activity  may  have  natural  genesis  is  the  mission  of  anarchy.  It  looks 
to  the  state  only  to  abolish  privilege;  it  looks  to  the  freeman  for  the 
co-operative  unit.  It  lays  its  foundation  at  the  bottom,  rather  than 
beginning  at  the  top  to  build  downward. 

In  co-operation  it  sees  that  which  will  supplant  the  state,  which 
will  open  avenues  to  every  faculty,  provide  supply  for  every  demand, 
and  furnish  to  all  the  fullest  and  freest  scope  for  the  development  of 
individuality,  without  the  necessity  of  pleading  a  ''baby  act"  to  invoke 
guidance  or  desire  to  compel  others  to  follow  our  co-operative  lead 
and  example. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  Jg^ 

CHAPTER    VIT. 
Anabchy. 

[From  C.  L.  James'  "  Tract  for  the  Times."] 

Anarchy,  from  the  Groek  a  or  an  (not)  and  arche  (the  first,  the 
chief)  or  a?'c/«o;i  (a  magistrate),  means  that  state  of  society  in  which 
there  is  no  government.  It  is,  therefore,  very  improperly  applied  to 
that  state  in  which  there  are  two  or  more  governments  contending  for 
the  supremacy.  What  anarchists  desire  is  the  permanent  abolition  of 
all  government.  It  is  contended,  and  is  doubtless  true,  that  this  would 
involve  the  abolition  of  all  property,  understanding  by  property,  not  the 
mere  right  of  using  or  possessing  anything  (which  is  inseparable  from 
man's  life  on  earth),  but  the  right  to  keep  anything,  even  without  using 
it,  and  to  impose  a  tax  on  whoever  does  use  it,  which  is  derived  from 
government  and  law,  and  not  from  nature.  Hence  anarchists  are  often 
called,  though  I  think  tautologically,  anarchistic  socialists,  or  anarchist' 
communists. 

*  *  *  *  * 

By  the  State  socialists,  it  is  proposed  that  the  government  should 
assume  the  regulation  of  all  industries,  becoming  the  sole  capitalist  and 
landlord,  employing  the  proletariate^  or  actual  laborers,  with  a  view  to 
their  own  benefit.  Now,  since  State  socialism  is  the  natural  end  of 
democracy  or  ochlocracy^  and  since  modern  governments  (the  result  of 
an  alliance  between  the  serfs  and  the  bourgeois  against  the  feudal  nobil- 
ity) are,  in  the  main,  domocratic,  it  need  not  surprise  us  to  find  that  our 
economic  system  is,  to  a  great  extent,  State  socialistic,  as  has  been  said. 
The  post  office,  the  tariff,  the  laws  about  child  labor  and  female  labor, 
the  regulation  of  savings  banks  and  other  loan  offices,  the  State  owner- 
ship of  the  railroads,  telegraphs,  etc.,  which  exist  in  so  many  countries, 
are  evidently  arrangements  of  this  type.  And  when  we  hear  it  proposed 
with  applause  that  the  government  shall  take  possession  of  the  land  it 
is  evident  how  popular  this  remedy  for  prevailing  wrongs  is  becoming 
in  America.  We  often  hear  it  pronounced  impracticable.  But  the 
remark  needs  qualification.  Impracticable  for  good,  it  may,  I  fear,  be  a 
"coming  slavery"  much  too  feasible  for  ill.  Surely  the  State  socialists 
forget  to  give  us  their  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  government  would 
make  a  better  landlord'  or  capitalist  than  any  other.  It  cannot,  surely, 
be  the  manner  in  which  governments  originate  that  makes  them  think 
so;  nor  the  simplicity  of  governmental  machinery  and  the  directness  of 
its  methods;  and  if  it  is  the  character  of  the  individuals  composing  the 
administration,  they  must  estimate  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  profes- 
sional politicians  at  a  figure  which  argues  very  little  actual  acquaintance 
with  this  class  of  our  fellow  citizens.     The  truth  is  that  their  faith  in 


IQQ  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

government  is  a  superstition,  our  inheritance  from  days  when  kings 
were  gods.  The  remarks  of  Lord  Macauley  on  this  point  always  seemed 
to  me  extremely  pertinent.  ''  It  scarcely  ever  happens  that  any  private 
man  or  body  of  men  will  invest  property  in  a  canal,  a  tunnel  or  a  bridge, 
but  from  an  expectation  that  the  outlay  will  be  profitable  to  them.  No 
work  of  this  sort  can  be  protij:able  to  private  speculators  unless  the  pub- 
lic be  willing  to  pay  for  the  use  of  it.  The  public  will  not  pay  of  their 
own  accord  for  what  yields  no  profit  or  convenience  to  them.  There  is 
thus  a  direct  and  obvious  connection  between  the  motive  which  induces 
individuals  to  undertake  such  a  work,  and  tlie  utility  of  the  work.  Can 
we  find  any  such  connection  in  the  case  of  a  public  work  executed  by  a 
government?  If  it  is  useful,  are  the  individuals  who  rule  the  country 
richer?  If  it  is  useless,  are  they  poorer?  A  public  man  maybe  solicit- 
ous about  his  credit.  But  *  *  *  the  fame  of  public  works  is  a  much 
less  certain  test  of  their  utility  than  the  amount  of  toll  collected  at 
them.  In  a  corrupt  age,  there  will  be  direct  embezzlement.  In  the 
purest  age,  there  wdl  be  abundance  of  jobbing.  *  *  *  *  In  a  bad  age, 
the  fate  of  the  public  is  to  be  robbed  outright.  In  a  good  age,  it  is 
merely  to  have  the  dearest  and  worst  of  everything.  *  *  We  firmly 
believe  that  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  subscribed  by  individuals  for 
railroads  or  canals  would  produce  more  advantage  to  the  public  than 
five  millions  voted  by  parliament  for  the  same  purpose.  There  are  cer- 
tain old  saws  about  the  master's  eye  and  everybody's  business  in  which 
we  place  very  great  faith."  These  observations  are  fully  borne  out  by 
the  actual  result  of  State  socialistic  experiments.  In  Russia,  the  land 
still  belongs  to  the  village,  and  is  annually  divided  among  the  people  by 
an  elective  magistrate.  And  Russia  is  the  only  country  left  in  Europe 
which  is  periodically  scourged  by  famine.  In  France,  after  the  revolu- 
tion of  1848,  the  government  set  up  workshops  known  as  ateliers^  which 
failed  to  pay  their  expenses.  In  our  own  country,  examples  crowd  on 
the  memory  like  shrieking  ghosts.  The  post  ofiice,  in  the  more  settled 
portions  of  America,  is  only  protected  against  the  competition  of  indi- 
viduals by  penal  laws.  In  the  wilder  portions,  it  produces  more  frauds 
than  any  other  part  of  our  public  institutions,  which  is  saying  a  great 
deal.  In  all,  it  is  the  well-known  sanctuary  of  ofiice  brokerage  and  cor- 
ruption. With  the  best  patronized  system  of  schools  in  the  world,  we 
have,  for  all  the  purposes  of  education,  very  nearly  the  worst.  The  pro- 
tective tariff,  having  destroyed  our  most  thriving  industries,  such  as  that 
of  shipbuilding,  has  reduced  the  laborers  in  all  others  to  '*  starvation 
wages, '^  as  we  are  every  day  informed.  The  subsidies  and  lands  granted 
by  the  government  of  the  nation,  states  and  towns,  to  railroad  and  other 
corporations,  have  reduced  the  agricultural  class  to  a  condition  not 
materially  different  from  that  of  the  serfs  in  the  middle  ages.  From 
experience  of  the  State  socialistic  tendency  on  a  small  scale,  we  may 
infer  how  it  would  work  upon  a  great.  It  would  at  once  create  a  swarm- 
ing army  of  officeholders,  that  is,  so  many  more  non-producers,  for  the 
rest  of  us  to  support.  It  would  create  a  corresponding  multitude  of 
office-seekers,  as  if  we  had  not  far  too  many  of  them  already.  It  would 
entail  on  all  branches  of  business  and  trade  the  slowness,  clumsiness, 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 


161 


inefficiency  and  corruption  which  always  characterize  officialism.  It 
would  reduce  the  standard  of  labor  to  the  capacity  of  the  least  intelli- 
gent, industrious  and  successful  workman.  It  would  either  require  a 
system  of  impressed  labor,  like  that  of  the  Egyptian  fellahs,  or  convert 
a  large  portion  of  the  people  into  State-supported  paupers,  desiring  only 
*'  bread  and  shows."  It  would  paralyze  invention,  progress  and  improve- 
ment. It  would  discourage  manufactures,  continence  and  luxury,  and 
promote  overpopulation  with  that  slovenly  kind  of  agriculture  in  which 
each  family  lives  on  the  produce  of  its  own  garden  patch.  Of  course, 
famines  would  be  frequent.  And  finally,  we  should  not  all  be  equal,  even 
in  our  misery.  The  new  officeholding  aristocracy  would  find  aieans  to 
feather  their  nests  after  all.  The  pons  aslnorum  of  the  subject  is  that 
people  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  govern  for  nothing,  nor  for  the  mea- 
ger wages  of  republican  legislators.  Ambition,  the  love  of  power,  is 
what  calls  government  into  being;  in  other  words,  under  no  form  of 
government  can  the  people  really  be  the  masters.  That  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  State  socialism,  predicted  here,  as  they  are  also  by  the  hour- 
geois  economists,  would  not  follow  from  anarchistic  socialism,  will  be 
demonstrated  in  due  course. 

I  am  ready  now  to  maintain  my  thesis — that  government  can  be 
abolished,  and  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  it  to  be  restored.  That  it 
can  be  abolished  is  perhaps  too  readily  admitted  by  most  people.  We 
hear  the  assertion  continually  repeated  that  it  has  been  overthrown  and 
restored  many  times;  but  the  truth  is  that  government  in  general  never 
was  overthrown  since  it  was  first  established.  A  government  has  fre- 
quently been  overthrown,  but  always  by  some  hostile,  foreign  or  revolu- 
tionary government;  and  a  struggle  of  two  or  more  rival  governments, 
such  as  sometimes  followed,  is  not  anarchy,  though  it  has  often  been  so 
incorrectly  called  by  historians  and  publicists.  To  appreciate  the  feasi- 
bility of  abolishing  government,  we  must  consider  the  social  changes 
which  have  taken  place  since  it  was  instituted.  All  government  rests, 
as  we  have  said,  on  armed  force,  and  all  governments  originated  among 
savages,  except  those  of  new  countries,  like  America,  which  were 
imported  by  the  colonists.  Now  savages  have  certain  propensities  pre- 
disposing them  to  establish  government,  which  civilized  men  have  not, 
at  least,  in  the  same  degree.  They  are  very  warlike,  often  living  on 
human  flesh,  by  the  slave  trade  or  by  pillage;  while,  as  wealth  increases, 
war  becomes  increasingly  inconvenient  and  undesirable.  They  are  very 
patriotic  after  a  narrow  fashion,  devoted  to  the  tribe,  eager  to  revenge  a 
family  or  national  wrong,  and  destitute  of  any  sense  of  duty  toward 
foreigners.  They  have  an  idolatrous  reverence  both  for  the  personal 
qualities  ot  a  ruler  and  for  all  kinds  of  precedent,  custom  and  authority. 
The  evolutionary  philosopher  will  see  in  these  traits  the  instincts  of  a 
gregarious  and  imitative  animal,  which  loses  power  as  man  becomes  a 
rational  and  commercial  animal,  an  individualist  toward  his  relations  and 
neighbors;  among  strangers,  a  citizen  of  the  world.  Accordingly,  with 
the  progress  of  civilization,  the  sphere  of  government  and  the  reverence 
for  its  authority  tend  to  spontaneausly  contract.  It  is  true,  as  a  writer 
in  the  Kncydopcpdia  Britannka  has  recently  pointed  out,  that  the  mere 


2^2  "^"^    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

number  of  laws  of  the  State  socialistic  Vp^v  ^J  which,  modern  govern- 
ments encroach  on  individual  freedom,  nas,  of  late,  materially  increased. 
But  the  magnitude  of  those  relations  which  governments,  as  a  rule, 
have,  at  least  partially,  ceased  to  regulate,  such  as  religion,  contract, 
foreign  trade,  speech,  literature^  bequest,  marriage,  far  exceeds  that  of 
th^r  encroachments.  And,  besides,  the  State  socialistic  arrangements 
of  modern  times  are,  at  least  ostensibly,  in  the  interest  of  freedom.  They 
are  quack  remedies  for  bourgeois  tyranny.  It  by  no  means  follows, 
therefore,  that  government,  if  abolished  now,  would  be  reproduced, 
because  savages,  who  were  without  it,  instituted  it.  The  argument  is  a 
familiar  fallacy ;  a  case  of  undistributed  middle.  A  somewhat  similar  crit- 
icism applies  to  the  argument  from  the  restoration  of  government  after 
the  quasi-anarchistic  revolutions  of  modern  times.  If  such  events  prove 
anything,  they  prove,  not  only  that  some  sort  of  government,  but  much 
the  same  kind  which  previously  existed,  must  be  restored.  But  it  was 
the  bourgeois  class  which,  in  every  case,  effected  the  restoration.  Noth- 
ing, therefore,  can  be  inferred  as  to  what  will  happen  when  the  reign 
of  the  bourgeois  terminates,  either  by  its  inherent  tendencies  to  decay  or 
by  a  forcible  revolution.  The  reign  of  the  bourgeois  rests,  as  we  have 
said,  on  gunpowder.  It  cannot  survive  the  use  by  the  proletariate  of  a 
weapon  requiring  no  capital,  and  against  which  gunpowder  would  be  as 
impotent  as  armor  and  castles  against  gunpowder.  Such  a  weapon  is 
dynamite,  using  that  word  by  a  synecdoche  to  denote  all  the  cheap  and 
rapid  agents  of  destruction  described  in  Herr  Host's  now  famous  pam- 

Ehlet.  In  a  war  with  such  weapons,  the  rich  man's  capital,  instead  of 
is  tower  of  strength,  would  be  his  vulnerable  point.  And  the  same 
machinery  of  destruction  is  destined  to  remoye  the  prime  reason  for  the 
existence  of  government  by  putting  an  end  to  international  wars.  That 
war,  which  has  become  much  less  deadly  since  the  invention  of  long- 
range  weapons,  will  cease  when  the  weapons  become  too  deadly  to  let 
sane  combatants  get  together  at  all,  is  a  commonplace;  though,  like  the 
others  which  we  have  cited,  it  is  applied  only  by  anarchists. 

Thus  we  come  to  our  last  thesis,  that  after  the  abolition  of  govern- 
ment, crime,  instead  of  increasing,  will  be  more  promptly,  humanely 
and  inexorably  dealt  with  than  at  present;  to  which  we  may  add  that 
all  the  social  functions,  as  if  relieved  of  an  incubus,  will  work  at  increased 
pressure  and  with  the  energy  of  a  new  life.  There  are  almost  innumera- 
ble illustrations  of  the  truth  that  repression  has  no  tendency  to  prevent 
crime,  but  that  freedom  has;  that  liberty,  as  Proudhon  said,  is  not  the 
daughter,  but  the  mother  of  order. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Anarchy,  being  universal  liberty,  would  exercise  on  the  human 
faculties  an  effect  the  reverse  of  that  general  paralysis  induced  by 
State  socialism,  which  is  universal  restraint  and  regulation.  Its  prac- 
tical effect,  if  it  were  peaceably,  or  even  forcibly,  established  to-morrow, 
would  be  about  as  follows:  The  useless  class  would  at  once  be  driven 
to  work,  and  the  free  land  would  give  them  abundant  opportunities. 
The  farmer,  relieved  from  his  mortgages  and  taxes,  would  call  on  the 
country  merchant   for  some  unaccustomed   luxury,  as  a  meerschaum 


s 


rilK    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM.  ]  g3 

ipc.  The  answer,  at  first,  would  probably  be,  ''We  have  none. 
Bince  law  has  been  abolished,  we  are  afraid  of  our  lives  and  our 
pru|)erty."  But  the  farmer  insists,  and  the  merchant  at  last  succeeds 
in  finding  a  meerschaum,  which  he  exchanges  for  the  farmer's  produce. 
Within  four-and-twenty  hours  a  score  of  other  farmers  come  in  inquir- 
ing for  similar  luxuries.  The  merchant  writes  to  his  wholesale  house, 
to  report  that  trade  is  sensibly  reviving.  He  gets  about  the  same 
answer  which  he  gave  the  farmer.  "Since  law  is  abolished,  we  are 
afraid  to  import."  But,  in  a  few  days,  similar  communications  come 
in  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  wbolesale  house  determines  to 
engage  an  miporting  agent;  and  business  resumes  with  double  its 
accustomed  energy.  Rent,  which  seems  so  great  an  evil  to  Mr. 
George,  would  be  no  evil  if  only  actual  cultivators  received  it.  Of 
course,  those  engaged  in  trade  and  transportation  could  expect  no 
profit  beyond  the  wages  of  superintendence.  But  their  success  to  get- 
ting that,  ivould  depend  absolutely  upon  the  value  of  thei?'  services  to 
the  public;  ivhile,  at  present^  the  2)rofits  of  the  capitalist  depend^  too 
commonly,  not  on  the  value  of  his  ivork,  but  on  its  noxiousness — that  is, 
on  his  skill  in  making  a ''corner,"  manipulating  a  legislature,  procur- 
ing a  prohibitory  tariff,  or  in  some  other  way  hindering,  instead  of 
facilitating  production  and  trade.  The  hours  of  labor  would  be 
reduced  to  two  or  three  a  day.  Increased  consumption  might  raise 
them,  but  new  machinery  would  cut  them  down  again.  Anarchy,  to 
be  short,  is  but  the  laissez  faire  of  the  economists,  pushed  to  its  logical 
result.  It  requires  no  one  to  work  who  would  rather  be  idle.  It 
forbids  no  man  to  hoard  who  wants  to — if  he  can  stand  guard  over  his 
own  treasure,  or  get  some  one  else  at  his  own  cost,  to  do  so  for  him. 
It  forbids  no  one  to  worship  the  Virgin — or  Mumbo  Jumbo,  if  he  likes 
it  better.  If  one  man  chooses  to  get  a  fine  house,  while  another  is 
content  with  beer  enough  and  a  lodging  in  a  cellar,  the  anarchist  is 
willing  that  one  man  should  have  his  liouse,  and  the  other  his  beer. 
Anarchy  allows  every  one  to  assume  authority  so  far  as  others  are  wil- 
ling to  accept  it.  Anarchy  does  not  even  forbid  any  one  to  be  a  slave 
who  likes  provided  his  slavery  lasts  only  as  long  as  both  slave  and 
master  are  content.  Similarly,  it  is  willing  that  men  and  women 
should  contract  to  live  together,  for  a  year,  a  day,  a  month,  an  hour,  or 
as  they  can  agree,  }yrovided  each  expects  to  take  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  his  or  her  own  wisdom  or  folly,  relieved  only  by  such  volun- 
tary compassion  as  he  or  she  can  excite  among  the  more  experienced. 
It  has  faith  enough  in  women  to  believe  that  their  absolute  freedom 
would  destroy  prostitution.  It  would  also  remove  all  the  evils  which 
attend  on  marriage.  The  Malthusian  dilemma  would  solve  itself.  We 
have  heard  of  free  trade,  free  religion,  free  rum,  free  love.  Anarchy 
is  free  everytliing.  It  leaves  free  to  commit  even  arson  or  murder, 
those  who  choose  to  run  the  risk  of  being  lynched,  or  confined  as  dan- 
gerous lunatics.  It  sees  that  competition,  if  really  free,  might  do  as 
much  good  as  it  does  harm.  It  antagonizes  no  natural  instinct. 
Like  other  systems  of  philosophy,  it  recognizes  this  truth,  that  all  nat- 
ural instincts  have  a  normal   limit — benevolence  and  ideality  just  as 


2(34  TllK    IMIlI.OSOl^llV    OF    ANARCHISM. 

much  as  alimentiveness  and  destructiveness — but  it  also  sees  that 
natural  selection  reduces  them  all  to  this  limit  ;  and  that  with  this 
benificent  process  arbitrary  regulation  can  only  interfere;  albeit  natural 
selection  linally  governs  after  all.  Anarchy  is  Liberty;  Liberty  is 
Justice;  Justice  is  Virtue.  And  it  is  not  the  nature  of  Virtue  to  hurt 
any  one.  "  Length  of  days  are  in  her  right  hand,  and  in  her  left  riches 
and  honor;  her  ways  are  the  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her 
paths  are  Peace." 


CHAPTER  VITL 
The  Social  Revolution. 

"The  theory  of  politics,  which  has  possessed  the  minds  of  men,  and  wliich 
they  have  expressed  the  best  they  could  in  their  laws  and  their  resolutions,  con- 
sider persons  and  property  as  the  two  objects  for  whose  protection  government 
exists.  Of  persons,  all  have  equal  rights,  in  virtue  of  being  identical  in  nature. 
This  interest,  of  course,  with  its  whole  power  demands  a  democracy.  Whilst 
the  rights  of  all  as  persons  are  equal,  in  virtue  of  their  access  to  reason,  their 
rights  in  property  are  very  unequal.  One  man  owns  his  clothes,  and  another  owns 
country.  This  accident,  depending  primarily  on  the  skill  and  virtue  of  the 
parties,  of  which  there  is  every  degree,  and.  secondarily,  on  patrimony  falls  une- 
qually, and  its  rights,  of  course,  are  unequal.  Personal  rights,  universally  the  same, 
demand  a  government  framed  on  the  ratio  of  the  census  :  property  demands  a  gov- 
ernment framed  on  the  ratio  of  owners  and  the  owning.     *         *         *• 

"  Every  actual  State  is  corrupt.  Good  men  must  not  obey  the  laws  too  well. 
What  satire  on  government  can  equal  the  severity  of  censure  conveyed  in  the 
word  politic  ,  which  now  for  ages  has  signified  cunning,  intimating  that  the  State 
is  a  trick? — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

''  The  achievements  of  liberty  are  the  epochs  of  history,  Villan- 
age,  serfdom,  and  chattel  slavery — the  past  system  of  labor  have  forever 
disappeared.  The  laborers  of  the  civilized  world  have  gained  the  right 
to  starve."  The  existing  wage-system  though  it  began  to  supersede 
other  labor  systems  in  the  fifteenth  century  has  by  the  recent  discovery 
of  steam  and  electricity  applied  to  machinery  been  developed  enormous- 
ly. Production  en  masse  has  supplanted  the  feeble  powers  of  hand 
labor  until  the  powers  of  production  and  distribution  have  increased 
during  the  past  decade  a  thousand  fold.  But  the  poverty  of  the  produ- 
cers remains  not  only  unchanged  but  intensified.  Millions  of  human 
beings  die  yearly  of  cold,  hunger  or  exposure.  The  workers  are  forced 
to  subsist  upon  their  wages,  and  when  unable  to  procure  employment 
become  objects  of  capitalist  charity.  Therein  the  wage-system  difPers 
from  those  systems  which  preceded  it.  Villanage,  serfage,  and  chattel 
slavery  secured  the  laborer  his  daily  bread.  The  master  class  were  im- 
pelled by  pecuniary  interest  to  provide  for  the  existence  of  their  labor- 
ers. The  person  of  the  laborer  was  held  as  property  and  his  sickness  or 
death  entailed  a  pecuniary  loss  upon  the  owner.     Hence,  as  property 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    AN'AKCHISM. 


165 


they  were  cared  for,  provided  for  not  by  themselves,  but  b^  their 
owners.  The  wage-system  changed  the  relationship  by  makmg  the 
laborer  a  **free"  man,  dependent  upon  his  wage  for  subsistence.  It 
also  forced  him  to  compete  with  his  fellow-laborer  for  the  chance  to 
earn  wages — a  competition  that  constantly  tended  to  reduce  wages  to  a 
bare  subsistence.  The  competition  among  the  capitalist  class  —  em- 
ployers— for  control  of  markets  also  tended  constantly  to  reduce  wages 
to  the  subsistence  point.  Out  of  this  double  competition, — from  above 
and  below — arose  the  combinations,  pools,  trusts,  syndicates  etc,  of 
capital  which  has  for  its  object  first, — control  of  markets  by  regulating 
prices,  and  secondly  protection  against  demands  of  laborers  for  better 
pay  and  shorter  hours.  So  likewise,  the  laborers  formed  combinations, 
unions,  etc.,  their  object  being  to  dull  the  edge  of  competition  among 
themselves  for  opportunities  to  work  and  earn  wages,  and  secondly  to 
check  the  demands  of  ^employers  for  large  profits  through  reduced 
wages  and  increased  working  hours.  On  these  lines  the  capital  and 
labor  conflict  is  always  waged  sometimes  openly,  at  other  times  covertly, 
but  never*ceasing.  These  antagonisms,  inherent  to  the  wage  system 
creates  the  class  struggle,  and  throws  race  in  conflict  with  race,  and 
nations  are  by  their  necessities  driven  to  retard  the  progress  of  their 
fellows.  Each  machine,  each  device  added  to  the  processes  of  produc- 
tion and  distribution  to  simplify  its  methods  or  increase  its  power  only 
serves  to  intensify  the  class  struggle  by  sharpening  competition. 
Monopoly,  the  first  of  competition,  is  the  triumph  on  the  economic 
battle-field  of  the  best  armed,  equipped  and  officered  army.  The 
workers  of  the  whole  world  constitute  the  rank  and  file,  and  the  cap- 
tains of  industry  reap  the  honors  and  rewards.  The  wage-system  has 
now  reached  that  development  where  vast  numbers  of  homeless  outcasts 
in  every  country,  (estimated  in  the  United  States  alone  at  more  than  a 
million  persons)  are  driven  to  steal,  beg  or  starve. 

Under  the  pressure  of  enforced  poverty,  the  workers  engage  in 
strikes,  boycotts  and  riots.  But  the  vast  herd  of  the  proletariat  being 
unorganized,  suffer  on,  mutely,  patiently.  The  bourgeois  (capital- 
ist) class  are  compelled  to  employ  force  to  suppress  the  demands  or  the 
laborers  for  work,  or  better  pay,  etc.  Thus  to-day,  in  every  civilized 
country,  the  wage-system  is  propped  and  maintained  by  bayonets. 
Never  before  in  the  world's  history  was  society  divided  into  classes  upon 
the  question  of  economic  freedom.  The  contentions  of  the  past  arose 
out  of  interest  affecting  the  ruling  class  alone,  such  as  foreign  or  civil 
war,  forms  of  government,  religious  worship,  etc.  But,  now,  there  is 
the  one  question — economic  liberty — arraying  upon  one  side  the  privi- 
leged class  and  their  hired  retainers,  while  upon  the  other  side  gathers 
the  countless  host  of  the  disinherited — the  wage-workers. 

The  labor  question,  growing  out  of  the  wage-system  of  labor  is, 
therefore,  a  social,  not  a  political  or  local  or  national  question,  but 
international  and  affecting  the  whole  human  race. 

The  capitalist  or  wage-system  cannot  provide  for  or  take  care  of 
the  mendicants  it  creates,  fiaving  reached  its  full  growth,  that  is  to 
say,  having  concentrated  all  the  means  of  existence  into  the  hands  of  a 


\QQ  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    ANARCHISM. 

few  who  monopolize  the  wealth  created  by  all,  it  stands  as  a  barrier 
across  the  pathway  of  progress  and  liberty.  It  cannot  be  made  to  serve 
or  minister  to  the  wants  and  aspirations  of  the  people.  Its  tension  is 
now  drawn  taut  and  will  snap  in  twain.  Buttressed,  walled  and 
cemented  with  law — statute  law — and  government ;  with  organized 
armies  of  armed  officials  ;  with  prisons  and  poor-houses  innumerable  it 
defies  the  people,  and  dares  them  to  touch  any  of  its  vested  rights. 
The  hostile  attitude  of  the  classes,  the  growing  distrust  of  the  p^eople 
toward  their  rulers,  the  contempt  of  the  rulers  for  the  people,  is  the 
characteristic  of  society  in  every  country  to-day.  The  capitalist  system 
is  the  essence  of  force,  coercion,  authority.  No  amelioration,  no 
lightening  of  the  people's  burden  is  possible  under  it.  For  the  peoples' 
— the  workers,  —  complaints  it  has  but  one  answer  —  obey ! 
The  capitalist  system  therefore  will  inevitably,  irresistibly  drive  the 
people  into  revolt  as  the  last  and  only  recourse  to  relief  from  oppres- 
sion. The  people  will  then  trample  the  law  under  foot,  they  will  destroy 
government.  Coercive  control  will  cease  and  anarchy — the  right  to 
voluntarily  associate— prevail. 

Some  circumstance,  apparently  accidental,  will  precipitate  the  social 
revolt  of  the  people.  The  miseries  which  they  had  endured  by  reason 
of  enforced  poverty  will  compel  them  to  give  heed  to  the  necessities  of 
their  existence,  their  primary  needs  and  immediate  wants,  and  as  the 
social  revolution  will  have  been  forced  upon  them  by  the  fact  that  they 
could  not  attain  their  natural  development  in  the  form  of  society  which 
they  overthrew  in  order  to  make  room  for  liberty  and  the  rights  of 
man,  their  first  act  will,  of  necessity,  be  the  application  of  communistic 
principles.  They  will  expropriate  all  wealth;  they  will  take  possession 
of  all  foundries,  workshops,  factories,  mines,  etc.,  for  in  no  other  way 
could  they  be  able  to  continue  to  produce  what  they  require  on  a  basis 
of  equality,  and  be,  at  the  same  time,  independent  of  any  authority.  The 
great  warehouses  and  stores  and  granaries,  filled  with  what  their  labor 
had  produced,  with  their  enormous  quantities  of  food,  clothing,  etc.,  for 
man  s  nourishment  and  protection,  will  be  made  to  minister  freely  to 
the  wants  of  all.  So  likewise,  the  laborers  of  the  agricultural  regions, 
exploited  by  landlords  and  despoiled  by  money-lenders,  will,  in  their 
turn,  take  possession  of  the  soil  which  they  till,  but  from  which  they 
did  not  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  toil.  Thus  there  will  be  no  fear  for 
the  morrow  and  every  man  will  sit  beneath  his  vine  and  fig  tree,  with 
none  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid.  A  new  race  of  men  and  women  will 
be  evolved  from  the  new  civilization,  whose  progress  and  advancement, 
now  no  longer  weighed  down  with  the  sorrows  and  cares  of  poverty,  will 
bound  forward  into  the  light  of  intelligence,  the  happiness  of  peace,  and 
the  manhood  of  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality. 


Anarchy  means  without  rulers,  governors,  dictators.  Anarchy  is 
the  negation  "f  tt)rr6,  ()f  coercion,  of  authority.  Nevertheless,  there  is 
a  studied  and  persistent  effort  made  by  those  who  are  interested  in  per- 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF  ANARCHISM.  16? 

petuating  society  as  it  is,  and  who  assume  to  mold  or  lead  public  opin- 
ion, to  impress  the  uninformed  with  the  idea  that  anarchy  means  force, 
chaos,  disorder.  But  the  readers  of  these  pages  will  have  their  minds 
disabused  of  any  such  error.  Anarchy  is  the  opposite  of  the  present  dis- 
order called  ''  law  and  order  " — the  reverse  of  legality  and  its  offspring, 
privilege.  The  revolutionists  of  the  coming  time  are  not  therefore  neces- 
sarily anarchists.  Far  from  it.  The  great  mass  of  humanity  who 
engage  in  the  revolt  against  the  present  social  system  do  not  know  of 
or  understand  the  philosophy  or  science  of  anarchism.  The  revolting 
masses  will  act  from  impulse,  resentment  and  fear,  unconscious  of  the 
final  result.  The  transition,  revolutionary  period,  separating  the  old 
from  the  new  society,  will  doubtless  be  a  scene  of  overwhelming  dis- 
order, war,  brute  force,  carnage  and  destruction.  The  social  revolt  will 
cease  when  the  wage  system  is  overthrown,  and  anarchism  will  begin 
only  when  the  revolution  ends — when  peace,  based  on  liberty,  prevails. 
This  is  anarchism.  Anarchy  is  therefore  a  state  of  society  at  peace 
with  itself  and  all  the  world. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX. 


The  Philosophy  of  An^a^rchism. 

It  will  be  comprehended  by  the  thoughtful  reader,  who  has  perused 
these  pages  thus  far,  that  the  popular  conception  of  anarchism  is  a 
mistaken  one.  An  insane  anger  against  personal  tyrants,  and  a 
Tague  desire  to  destroy  and  kill,  are  not  the  characteristics  of  the 
philosophy  known  as  anarchy,  as  a  majority  of  the  people  up  to  this 
time  have  been  led  to  believe. 

The  philosophy  of  anarchism  is  included  in  the  one  word  "Liberty;" 
yet  it  is  comprehensive  enough  to  include  all  things  else.  No  barriers 
whatever  to  human  progression,  to  thought,  or  investigation,  are  placed 
by  anarchism;  nothing  is  considered  so  true  or  so  certain,  that  future 
discoveries  may  not  prove  it  false;  therefore,  it  has  but  one  infallible, 
unchangeable  motto,  ''Freedom."  Freedom  to  discover  any  truth,  free- 
dom to  develop,  to  live  naturally  and  fully.  ■  Other  schools  of  thought 
are  composed  of  crystallized  ideas — principles  that  are  caught  and 
impaled  between  the  planks  of  long  platforms,  and  considered  too  sacred 
to  be  disturbed  by  a  close  investigation.  In  all  other  "issues"  there  is 
always  a  limit;  some  imaginary  line  beyond  which  the  searching  mind 
dare  not  penetrate,  lest  some  pet  idea  melt  into  a  myth.  Science  has 
been  merciless  and  without  reverence,  because  it  is  compelled  to  be: 
the  discoveries  and  conclusions  of  one  day  are  exploded  by  the  dis- 
coveries and  conclusions  of  the  next.  But  anarchism  is  the  usher  of 
science — the  master  of  ceremonies  to  all  forms  of  truth.  It  would 
remove  all  barriers  between  the  human  being  and  natural  development. 
From  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth,  all  artificial  restrictions,  that 
the  body  might  be  nurtured,  and  from  universal  truth,  all  bars  of  pre- 
judice and  superstition,  that  the  mind  may  develop  harmoniously. 

It  is  then  the  complete  opposite  of  ideas  of  force  and  violence. 
Force,  in  invading  the  rights  of  individuals,  is  entirely  repudiated; 
legalized,  national  force  as  well  as  the  irresponsible  force  of  the  indi- 
vidual. "How  then,"  perhaps  the  inquirer,  even  at  this  stage^  may  ask, 
"do  you  reconcile  your  advocacy  of  a  violent  revolution  with  so  peaceful 
a  philosophy  ?" 

That  force  will  be  used  iu  the  comin^r  change,  whether  we  advocate 
it  or  not,  is  quite  evident  to  students  of  history;  that  ther^e  is  a  recon- 
cilable reason  for  our  advising  people  to  be  ready  for  it,  is  shown  in 
the  constant  use  of  force  that  is,  necessary  to  maintain  the  present  so- 
called  "order,"  but  actual  disorder.  Every  institution  which  now  works 
injustice  to  human  kind  is  possible  only  through  the  violence  or  threats 

(171) 


172  APPENDIX. 

of  violence  that  are  continually  exerted.  Well-filled  armories  and  well- 
drilled  regiments  are  the  pillars  of  class  rule,  and  monopoly  rests  on 
the  strength  of  courts  and  constabulary. 

Force  (legalized)  invades  the  personal  liberty  of  man,  seizes  upon 
the  natural  elements,  and  intervenes  between  man  and  natural  laws; 
from  this  exercise  of  force  through  governments  flows  nearly  all  the 
misery,  poverty,  crime  and  confusion  existing  in  society.  So,  wi  per- 
ceive, there  are  actual,  material  barriers  blockading  the  way.  These 
must  be  removed.  If  we  could  hope  they  would  melt  away,  or  be  voted 
or  prayed  into  nothingness,  we  would  be  content  to  wait  and  vote  and 
pray.  But  they  are  like  great  frowning  rocks  towering  between  us 
and  a  land  of  freedom,  while  the  dark  chasms  of  a  hard-fought  past 
yawn  behind  us.  Crumbling  they  may  be  with  their  own  weight 
and  the  decay  of  time,  but  to  quietly  stand  under  till  they  fall  is  to  be 
buried  in  the  crash.  There  is  something  to  be  done  in  a  case  like  this 
— the  rocks  must  be  removed.  Passivity  while  slavery  is  stealing  over 
us  is  criminal.  For  the  moment  we  must  forget  that  we  are 
anarchists — when  the  work  is  accomplished  we  may  forget  we  were 
revolutionists. 

And  what  of  the  glowing  beyond  that  is  so  bright  that  the  Grad- 
grinds  say  it  is  a  dream?  It  is  no  dream,  it  is  the  real,  stripped  of  brain- 
distortions  materialized  into  thrones  and  scaffolds,  mitres  and  guns.  It 
is  nature  acting  on  her  own  interior  laws  as  in  all  her  other  associations. 
It  is  a  return  to  first  principles;  for  were  not  the  land,  the  water,  the 
light  all  free  before  governments  took  shape  and  form?  In 
this  free  state  we  will  again  forget  to  think  of  these  things  as  "prop- 
erty." It  is  real,  for  we,  as  a  race,  are  growing  up  to  it.  The  idea  of 
less  restriction  and  more  liberty,  and  a  confiding  trust  that  nature  is 
equal  to  her  work,  is  permeating  all  modern  thought.  From  the  dark 
years — not  so  long  by — when  it  was  generally  believed  that  man's  soul 
was  totally  depraved  and  every  human  impulse  bad;  when  every  action, 
every  thought,  and  every  emotion  was  controlled  and  restricted ;  when 
the  human  frame,  diseased,  was  bled,  dosed,  suffocated  and  kept  as  far 
from  nature's  remedies  as  possible;  when  the  mind  was  seized  upon  and 
distorted  before  it  had  time  to  evolve  a  natural  thought — from  those 
days  to  these  latter  years  the  progress  of  this  idea  has  been  swift  and 
steady.  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  that  in  every  wav  we 
are  "governed  best  where  we  are  governed  least." 

Still  unsatisfied  perhaps,  the  inquirer  seeks  for  details,  for  ways 
and  means,  and  whys  and  wherefores.  How  will  we  go  on  like  human 
beings  eating  and  sleeping,  working  and  loving,  exchanging  and  dealing, 
without  government.  So  used  have  we  become  to  "organized  authority"  in 
every  department  of  life  that  ordinarily  we  cannot  conceive  of  the  most 
common-place  avocations  being  carried  on  without  their  interference  and 
"protection.'''  But  anarchism  is  not  therefore  compelled  to  outline  a 
complete  organization  of  a  free  society.  To  do  so  with  any  assumption 
of  authority  would  be  to  place  another  barrier  in  the  way  of  coming 
generations.  The  best  thought  of  to-day  may  become  the  useless  vagary 
of  to-morrow,  and  to  crystallize  it  mto  a  creed  is  to  make  it  an  unwieldy 


APPENDIX. 


rrs 


obstacle  as  well.  Still  we  may  prophesy  and  conjecture,  and  while  we 
believe  no  great  principle  is  compromised  if  we  say  "let  the  coming  free- 
men take  care  or  themselves,"  we  may  judge  from  our  present  knowl- 
edge of  human  characteristics  and  the  action  of  natural  law  something 
of  what  future  societary  arrangements  will  be.  "We  can  judge  of  the 
future  only  by  the  past.^'  We  can  believe  it  is  only  necessary  to  remove 
the  barriers,  to  abolish  the  powers  that  force  man  into  unnatural  chan- 
nels, to  recognize  no  "  organized  authority,"  and  believe  that  new 
systems  mil  spring  spontaneously  from  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  the 
conditions  surrounding  the  social  units — yet  we  may  have  logical  con- 
ceptions of  societary  arrangements,  and  the  wisdom  to  give  them  to  in- 
quirers. 

We  judge  from  experience  that  man  is  a  gregarious  animal,  and  in- 
stinctively affiliates  with  his  kind— co-operates,  unites  in  groups,  works 
to  better  advantage,  combined  with  his  fellow  workmen  than  when 
alone.  This  would  point  to  the  formation  of  co-operative  communities, 
of  which  our  present  trades-unions  are  embryonic  patterns.  Each 
branch  of  industry  will  no  doubt  have  its  own  organization,  regulations, 
leaders,  etc.;  it  will  institute  methods  of  direct  communication  with 
every  member  of  that  industrial  branch  in  the  world,  and  establish 
equitable  relations  with  all  other  branches.  There  would  probably  be 
conventions  of  industry  which  delegates  would  attend,  and  where  they 
would  transact  such  business  as  was  necessary,  adjourn  and  from  that 
moment  be  delegates  no  longer,  but  simply  members  of  a  group.  To 
remain  permanent  members  of  a  continuous  congress  would  be  to  estab- 
lish a  power  that  is  certain  sooner  or  later  to  be  abused. 

No  great  central  power,  like  a  congress  consisting  of  men  who  know 
nothing  of  their  constituents'  trades,  interests,  rights  or  duties,  would  be 
over  the  various  organizations  or  groups;  nor  would  they  employ  sheriffs, 
policemen,  courts  or  jailors  to  enforce  the  conclusions  arrived  at  while 
in  session.  The  members  of  groups  might  profit  by  the  knowledge 
gained  through  mutual  interchange  of  thought  afforded  by  conventions 
if  they  choose,  but  they  will  not  be  compelled  to  do  so  by  any  outside 
force. 

Vested  rights,  privileges,  charters,  title  deeds,  upheld  by  all  the 
paraphernalia  of  government — the  visible  symbol  of  power— such  as 
prisons,  scaffolds  and  armies  will  have  no  existence.  There  can  be  no 
privileges  bought  or  sold,  and  the  transaction  kept  sacred  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet.  Every  man  will  stand  on  an  equal  footing  with  his 
brother  in  the  race  of  life,  and  neither  chains  of  economic  thralldom 
nor  mental  drags  of  superstition  shall  handicap  the  one  to  the  advant- 
age of  the  other. 

Property  will  lose  a  certain  attribute  which  sanctifies  it  now.  The 
absolute  ownership  of  it— "the  right  to  use  or  abuse'"  will  be  abolished— and 
possession,  use,  will  be  the  only  title.  It  will  be  seen  how  impossible  it 
would  be  for  one  person  to  "own"  a  million  acres  of  land,  without  a  title 
deed  backed  by  a  government  ready  to  protect  that  title  at  all  hazards, 
even  to  the  loss  of  thousands  of  lives.  He  could  not  use  the  million  acres 
himself,  nor  could  he  wrest  from  its  depths  the  possible  resources  it  con- 


174 


APPENDIX. 


tains.  The  accidental  discovery  of  a  coal  field  or  a  gas  well  could  not  as 
now  make  one  man  enormously  rich  in  a  moment,  the  arbiter  and  master 
of  several  hundred  lives,  who,  robbed  of  their  own  rightful  inheritance, 
are  entirely  dependent  on  the  will  of  the  lucky  man.  There  will  be  no 
law,  of  course,  to  prevent  his  hiring  men  to  work  for  him,  but  as  every 
man  will  have  an  equal  chance  at  mother  earth,  the  probabilities  are 
that  they  will  have  too  much  business  of  their  own  to  be  hired. 

The  division  of  labor  now  developing  in  the  field  of  production 
already  illustrates  the  benefits  of  co-operative  efforts,  and  it  is  quite 
evident  that  future  production  will  be  carried  on  in  this  line.  Commu- 
nities and  groups  will  form,  and  in  the  interests  of  those  concerned  will 
make  their  regulations.  All  organization  will  be  voluntary,  with  the 
sacred  right  forever  reserved  to  each  individual  "to  think  and  to  rebel.'* 
''But  this  will  create  chaos  and  eternal  confusion f  the  objector  will 
say.  Why  should  it?  It  has  been  seen  even  under  present  systems 
that  liberty  of  action  is  a  great  civilizer.  (3ne  learns  by  observation 
that  it  is  not  the  restraints  thrown  around  the  individual  by  laws  and 
religious  creeds,  that  make  him  ''good."  Often  the  removal  of  these 
very  restrictions  renders  him  surprisingly  manful  and  upright,  feeling^ 
that  he  is  not  forced  into  a  path  he  would  tread  naturally,  if  let  alone. 
It  was  thought  not  long  ago  by  nearly  all,  that  to  destroy  the  belief  in 
an  everlasting  hell  would  be  to  break  the  bonds  which  held  in  check 
millions  of  wicked  people  ready  to  plunge  into  every  species  of  evil, 
like  a  torrent  raging  onward  to  its  own  destruction.  There  is  a  benighted 
old  journal  still  existing  in  these  latter  days  which  teaches  that  "hell 
and  the  scaffold  are  the  civilizers  of  the  people."  The  dear  good  old 
lady  with  one  of  the  kindest  hearts  in  the  world,  who  said,  "  If  I  didn''t 
believe  in  the  everlasting  punishment  of  eternal  fires,  I  would  do  all 
sorts  of  wicked  things,  steal,  lie,  murder,  dissipate,"  should  become  its- 
editor. 

The  belief  in  a  literal  place  of  torment  has  nearly  melted  away; 
and  instead  of  the  direful  results  predicted,  we  have  a  higher  and  truer 
standard  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  People  do  not  care  to  go  to  the 
bad  when  they  find  they  can  as  well  as  not.  Individuals  are  uncon- 
scious of  their  own  motives  in  doing  good.  While  acting  out  their 
natures  according  to  their  surroundings  and  conditions,  they  still  believe 
they  are  being  kept  in  the  right  path  by  some  outside  power,  some 
restraint  thrown  around  them  by  church  or  state.  So  the  objector 
believes  that  with  the  right  to  rebel  and  secede  sacred  to  him,  he  would 
forever  be  rebelling  and  seceding,  thereby  creating  constant  confusion 
and  turmoil.  Is  it  probable  that  he  would,  merely  for  the  reason  that 
he  could  do  so?  Men  are  to  a  great  extent  creatures  of  habit,  and  grow 
to  love  associations;  under  reasonably  good  conditions,  he  would  remain 
where  he  commences;  and  if  he  did  not,  who  has  any  natural  right  to 
force  him  into  relations  distasteful  to  him  ?  Under  the  present  order  of 
affairs,  persons  do  unite  with  societies  and  remain  good,  disinterested 
members  for  life  where  the  right  to  retire  is  always  conceded.  The  final 
outcome,  many  disciples  of  anarchism  believe  will  be  communism — the 
common  possession  of  the  resources  of  life  and  the  productions  of  uni- 


APPENDIX.  l'^5 

ted  labor.  No  anarchist  is  compromised  by  this  statement,  who  does 
not  reason  out  the  future  outlook  in  this  way;  the  many  of  us  who  do, 
are  responsible  only  for  our  own  opinions  on  the  subject. 

Many  expedients  will  be  tried  by  which  a  just  return  may  be 
awarded  the  worker  for  his  exertions.  The  time  check  or  labor  certifi- 
cate, which  will  be  honored  at  the  store-houses  hour  for  hour,  will  no 
doubt  have  its  day.  But  the  elaborate  and  complicated  system  of  book- 
keeping this  would  necessitate,  the  impossibility  of  balancing  one  man's 
hour  against  another's  with  accuracy,  and  the  difiiculty  in  determining 
how  much  more  one  man  owed  to  natural  resources,  conditions,  and  the 
studies  and  achievements  of  past  generations,  than  did  another,  would, 
we  believe,  prevent  this  system  from  obtaining  a  thorough  and  perma- 
nent establishment.  The  mutual  banking  system  outlined  by  W.  B. 
Greene  may  be  in  operation  in  the  future  free  society.  Another  sys- 
tem, more  simple,  to  the  writer  appears  the  most  acceptable  and  likely 
to  prevail,  Members  of  the  groups  will  carry  cards,  showing  their 
standing  in  their  respective  societies,  and  if  honest  producers,  they  will 
be  honored  in  any  other  group  they  may  visit,  and  given  whatever 
IS  necessary  to  their  welfare  and  comfort. 

But,  after  all,  as  we  grow  more  enlightened  under  this  "larger 
liberty, '^  we  will  grow  to  care  less  and  less  for  that  exact  distribution  of 
material  wealth,  which,  m  our  greed-nurtured  senses,  seems  now  so 
impossible  to  think  upon  carelessly.  The  men  and  women  of  loftier 
intellects,  in  the  present,  think  not  so  much  of  the  riches  to  be  gained 
by  their  efforts  as  of  the  good  they  can  do.  There  is  an  innate  spring 
of  healthy  action  m  every  human  being  who  has  not  been  crushed  and 
pinched  by  poverty  and  drudgery  from  before  his  birth,  that  impels  him 
onward  and  upward.  He  cannot  be  idle,  if  he  would;  it  is  as  natural  for 
him  to  develop,  expand,  and  use  the  powers  within  him  when  not  re- 
pressed, as  it  is  for  the  rose  to  bloom  in  the  sunlight  and  fling  its 
fragrance  on  the  passing  breeze.  The  grandest  works  of  the  past  were 
never  performed  for  the  sake  of  money.  Who  can  measure  the  worth 
of  a  Shakespeare,  an  Angelo  or  Beethoven  in  dollars  and  cents? 
Agassiz  said  "he  had  no  time  to  make  money,"  there  were  higher  and 
better  objects  in  life  than  that.  And  so  will  it  be  when  humanity  is 
once  relieved  from  the*  pressing  fear  of  starvation,  want,  and  slavery,  it 
will  be  concerned^  less  and  less,  about  the  ownership  of  vast  accumula- 
tions of  wealth.  Such  possessions  would  be  but  an  annoyance  and 
trouble.  When  two  or  three  or  four  hours  a  day  of  easy,  of  healthful 
labor  will  produce  all  the  comforts  and  luxuries  one  can  use,  and  the 
opportunity  to  labor  is  never  denied,  people  will  become  indifferent  as 
to  who  owns  the  wealth  they  do  not  need.  Wealth  will  be  below  par, 
and  it  will  be  found  that  men  and  women  will  not  accept  it  for  pay,  or 
be  bribed  by  it  to  do  what  they  would  not  willingly  and  naturally  do 
without  it.  Some  higher  incentive  must,  and  will,  supersede  the  greed 
for  gold.  The  involuntary  aspiration  born  in  man  to  make  the  most 
of  one's  self,  to  be  loved  and  appreciated  by  one's  fellow-beings,  to 
"make  the  world  better  for  having  lived  in  it,"  will  urge  him  on  to 
nobler  deeds  than  ever  the  sordid  and  selfish  incentive  of  material  gain 
has  done. 


176 


APPENDIX. 


If,  in  the  present  chaotic  and  shameful  struggle  for  existence, 
when  organized  society  offers  a  premium  on  greed,  cruelty,  and  deceit, 
men  can  be  found  who  stand  aloof  and  almost  alone  in  their  determina- 
tion to  work  for  good  rather  than  gold,  who  suffer  want  and  persecution 
rather  than  desert  principle,  who  can  bravely  walk,  to  the  scaffold  for 
the  good  they  can  do  humanity,  what  may  we  expect  from  men  when 
freed  from  the  grinding  necessity  of  selling  the  better  part  of  themselves 
for  bread?  The  terrible  conditions  under  which  labor  is  performed, 
the  awful  alternative  if  one  does  not  prostitute  talent  and  morals  in  the 
service  of  mammon;  the  power  acquired  with  the  wealth  obtained  by 
ever  so  unjust  means,  combine  to  make  the  conception  of  free  and 
voluntary  labor  almost  an  impossible  one.  And  yet,  there  are  examples 
of  this  principle  even  now.  In  a  well-bred  family  each  person  has  cer- 
tain duties,  which  are  performed  cheerfully,  and  are  not  measured  out 
and  paid  for  according  to  some  pre-determined  standard;  when  the 
united  members  sit  down  to  the  well-filled  table,  they  do  not  scramble 
to  get  the  most,  while  the  weakest  do  without,  or  gather  greedily  around 
them  more  food  than  they  could  possibly  consume.  Each  patiently 
and  politely  awaits  his  turn  to  be  served,  and  leaves  what  he  does  not 
want;  he  is  certain  that  when  again  hungry  plenty  of  good  food  will 
be  provided. 

Again,  the  utter  impossibility  of  awarding  to  each  an  exact  return 
for  the  amount  of  labor  performed  will  render  absolute  communism  a 
necessity  sooner  or  later.  The  land  and  all  it  contains,  without  which 
labor  cannot  be  exerted,  belong  to  no  one  man,  but  to  all  alike.  The 
inventions  and  discoveries  of  the  past  are  the  common  inheritance  of 
the  coming  generations;  and  when  a  man  takes  the  tree  that  nature  fur- 
nished free,  and  fashions  it  into  a  useful  article,  or  a  machine  perfected 
and  bequeathed  to  him  by  many  past  and  succeeding  generations,  who 
is  to  determine  what  proportion  is  his  and  his  alone?  Primitive  man 
would  have  been  a  week  fashioning  a  rude  resemblance  to  the  article 
with  his  clumsy  tools,  where  the  modern  worker  has  occupied  an  hour. 
The  finished  article  is  of  far  more  real  value  than  the  rude  one  made 
long  ago,  and  yet  the  primitive  man  toiled  the  longest  and  hardest. 
Who  can  determine  with  exact  justice  what  is  each  one's  due? 

There  must  come  a  time  when  we  will  cease  trying.  The  earth  is 
so  bountiful,  so  generous;  man's  brain  is  so  active,  his  hands  so  restless, 
that  wealth  will  spring  like  magic,  ready  for  the  use  of  the  world's 
inhabitants.  We  will  become  as  much  ashamed  to  quarrel  over  its  pos- 
session as  we  are  now  to  squabble  over  the  food  spread  bef  re  us  on  a 
loaded  table. 

"  But  all  this,"  the  objector  urges,  ''  is  very  beautiful  in  the  far-off 
future,  when  we  become  angels.  It  would  not  do  now  to  abolish  gov- 
ernments and  legal  restraints;  people  are  not  prepared  for  it." 

This  is  a  question.  We  have  seen,  in  reading  history,  that  wher- 
ever an  old-time  restriction  has  been  removed  the  people  have  ?^o^  abused 
their  newer  liberty.  Once  it  was  considered  necessary  to  compel  men 
to  save  their  souls,  with  the  aid  of  governmental  scaffolds,  racks  and 
stakes.     Until  the  foundation  of  the  present  republic,  it  was  considered 


APPENDIX.  ]^~'y 

absolutely  essential  that  governments  should  second  the  efforts  of  the 
church  in  forcint^  people  to  attend  the  means  of  grace;  and  yet  it  is 
found  that  the  standard  of  morals  among  the  masses  is  raised  since  they 
are  left  free  to  pray  as  they  see  fit,  or  not  at  all,  if  they  prefer  it.  It 
was  believed  the  chattel  slaves  would  not  work  if  the  overseer  and  whip 
were  removed;  they  are  so  much  more  a  source  of  profit  now  that 
ex-slave  owners  would  not  return  to  the  old  system  if  they  could. 

So  many  of  the  able  writers  quoted  in  this  book  have  shown  that 
the  unjust  institutions  which  work  so  much  misery  and  suffering  to  the 
masses  have  their  root  in  governments,  and  owe  their  whole  existence  to 
the  power  derived  from  government,  we  cannot  help  but  believe  that 
were  every  law,  every  title  deed,  every  court,  and  every  police  officer  or 
soldier  abolished  to-morrow  with  one  sweep,  the  people  would  be  better 
off  than  now.  The  actual,  material  things  that  man  needs  would  still 
exist;  his  strength  and  skill  would  remain  and  his  instinctive  social 
inclinations  retain  their  force.  Freed  from  the  systems  that  made  him 
wretched  before,  he  is  not  likely  to  make  himself  more  wretched  for 
lack  of  them.  Much  more  is  contained  in  the  thought  that  conditions 
make  man  what  he  is,  and  not  the  laws  and  penalties  made  for  his  guid- 
ance, than  is  supposed  by  careless  observation.  We  have  laws,  jails, 
courts,  armies,  guns  and  armories  enough  to  make  samts  of  us  all,  if 
they  were  the  true  preventives  of  crime;  but  we  know  they  do  not  pre- 
vent crime;  that  wickedness  and  depravity  exist  in  spite  of  them,  nay, 
increase  as  the  struggle  between  classes  grows  fiercer,  wealth  greater  and 
more  powerful,  and  poverty  more  gaunt  and  desperate.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  truth,  notice  the  statistics  of  Warden  McClaughrey,  given 
l)efore  the  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago,  a  club  consisting  of  million- 
aires. He  stated  that  500,000  criminals  in  the  United  States,  according 
to  the  best  obtainable  statistics,  are  under  21  years  of  age! 

What  an  army  of  outcasts!  Does  any  one  believe  that  these  young 
])ersons  deserted  peaceful  and  virtuous  walks  of  life,  blessed  with  love, 
home  and  friends,  voluntarily?  Or,  were  they  not  crowded  to  the  prison 
dojrs  by  the  wretched  surroundings  the  present  civilisation  forces  upon 
them?  Prisons  the  guardians  of  the  people's  morals?  The  above  show- 
ing damns  forever  this  idea! 

Have  we  not  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  entire  abolition  of  a 
centralized  power,  with  all  its  facilities  for  granting  privileges,  for  pro- 
tecting monopolies  and  aiding  robbers  in  stealing  the  people's  inherit- 
ance, would  result  in  great  good  to  humanity^  bad  as  it  is  become 
throuo^h  long  ages  of  injustice? 

Oh,  Liberty!  No  wonder  the  vision  of  thy  realization  is  too  bright 
to  be  deemed  more  than  a  fleeting  dream!  The  weary  toiler  who  now 
never  thinks  of  rest,  dare  not  look  upon  the  picture,  the  sensuous  idler 
scorns  it.  But  how  possible  after  all!  Nature  has  denied  us  not  one 
element  towards  its  realization — man  himself  lacks  not  one  faculty 
towards  its  appreciation  and  enjoyment.  To  know  that  little  children 
will  no  more  drudge  and  wither  away  in  factories  and  mines;  that 
women  will  not  slowly  coin  their,  heart's  blood  over  their  needle,  while 
starvation  eternally  stares  in  at  the  door,  that  strong  men  will  not  waste 


278  APPENDIX. 

their  lives  in  abject  slavery  or  unwilling  vagabondage,  and  that  constant, 
fear  of  cold  and  hunger  and  homelessness  that  so  petrifies  and  stupifies 
the  heart  and  soul  will  be  banished  forever;  that  women  will  be  freed 
from  the  black  clinging  trail  of  the  serpent  winding  through  all  ages, 
the  selling  of  herself  for  bread  or  splendor;  that  genius  will,  no  longer 
crushed  in  the  narrow,  suffering  limits  of  neglect  and  poverty,  rise  to 
heights  unknown  before — is  it  not  worth  working,  living  and  dying  for? 
Ah,  no,  friends,  anarchy  is  not  buried — it  is  not  dead,  *  *  * 


A.  R.  Parso:n^s'  Appeal  to  the  People  of  America. 

Fellow  Citizens  :  As  all  the  world  knows,  I  have  been  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  die  for  the  crime  of  murder,  the  most  heinous  offense 
that  can  be  committed.  Under  the  forms  of  law,  two  courts,  viz.,  the 
criminal  and  supreme  courts  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  have  sentenced  me 
to  death  as  an  accessory  before  the  fact,  to  the  murder  of  officer  Degan 
on  May  4, 1886.  Nevertheless  I  am  innocent  of  the  crime  charged,  and 
to  a  candid  and  unprejudiced  world  I  submit  the  proof. 

In  the  decision  affirming  the  sentence  of  death  upon  me,  tlie  supreme 
court  of  the  State  of  Illinois  says:  "It  is  undisputed  that  the  bomb  was 
thrown  that  caused  the  death  of  Degan.  It  is  conceded  that  no  one  of 
the  defendants  threw  the  bomb  with  his  own  hands.  Plaintiffs  in  error 
are  charged  with  being  accessories  before  the  fact." 

If  I  did  not  throw  the  bomb  myself,  it  becomes  necessary  to  prove 
that  I  aided,  encouraged  and  advised  the  person  who  did  throw  it.  Is 
that  fact  proven?  The  supreme  court  says  it  is.  The  record  says  it  is 
not.     I  appeal  to  the  American  people  to  judge  between  them. 

The  supreme  court  quotes  articles  from  The  Alarm,  the  paper  edited 
by  me,  and  from  my  speeches,  running  back  three  years  before  the  Hay- 
market  tragedy  of  May  4,  1886.  Upon  said  articles  and  speeches  the 
court  affirms  the  sentence  of  death  as  an  accessory.  The  court  says: 
"The  articles  in  The  Alarm  were  most  of  them  written  by  the  defendant 
Parsons,  and  some  of  them  by  the  defendant  Spies,"  and  then  proceeds 
to  quote  these  articles.  I  refer  to  the  record  to  prove  that,  of  all  the 
articles  quoted,  only  one  was  shown  to  have  been  written  by  me.  I 
wrote,  of  course,  a  great  msiny  articles  for  The  Alarm ,  but  the  record 
will  show  that  only  one  of  the  many  quoted  by  the  supreme  court  to 
prove  my  guilt  as  an  accessory   was  written  by  me,  and   this  article 


APPENDIX.  1 79 

appeared  in  Tlie  Alarm  December  0,  1884,  one  year  and  a  half  before 
the  Haymarket  meeting. 

As  to  Mr.  Spies,  the  record  will  show  that  during  the  three  years 
I  was  editor  of  The  Alarm,  he  did  not  write  for  the  paper  half  a  dozen 
articles.     For  proof  as  to  this  I  appeal  to  the  record. 

The  Alarm  was  a  labor  paper,  and,  as  is  well  known,  a  labor  paper 
is  conducted  as  a  medium  through  which  working  people  can  make 
known  their  grievances.  The  Alarm  was  no  exception  to  this  rule.  I 
not  only  did  not  write  ''  most  of  the  articles,"  but  wrote  comparatively 
few  of  them.     This  the  record  will  also  show. 

In  referring  to  my  Haymarket  speech  the  court  says:  "To  the 
men  then  listening  to  him  he  had  addressed  the  incendiary  appeals  that 
had  been  appearing  in  The  Alarm  for  two  years."  The  court  then 
quotes  the  '•  incendiary "  article  which  I  did  write,  and  which  is  as 
follows:  "  One  dynamite  bomb  properly  placed  will  destroy  a  regiment 
of  soldiers;  a  weapon  easily  made  and  carried  with  perfect  safety  in  the 
pockets  of  one's  clothing." 

The  record  will  show  by  referring  to  The  Alarm  that  this  is  a 
garbled  extract  taken  from  a  statement  made  by  General  Phillip  Sheri- 
dan in  his  annual  report  to  congress.  It  was  simply  a  reiteration  of 
General  Sheridan's  statement  that  dynamite  was  easily  made,  perfectly 
safe  to  handle,  and  a  very  destructive  weapon  of  warfare.  The  article 
in  full  as  it  appeared  in  The  Alarm  is  as  follows: 

"  Dynamite.  The  protection  of  the  poor  against  the  armies  of  the 
rich.  In  submitting  his  annual  report  November  10,  1884,  General 
Phillip  Sheridan,  commander  of  the  United  States  army,  says:  '  This 
nation  is  growing  so  rapidly  that  there  are  signs  of  other  troubles  which 
I  hope  will  not  occur,  and  which  will  probably  not  come  upon  us  if  both 
capital  and  labor  will  only  be  conservative.  Still  it  should  be  remem- 
bered destructive  explosives  are  easily  made,  and  that  banks.  United 
States  sub-treasuries,  public  buildings,  and  large  mercantile  houses  can 
be  readily  demolished,  and  the  commerce  of  entire  cities  destroyed  by 
an  infuriated  people  with  means  carried  with  perfect  safety  to  themselves 
in  the  pockets  of  their  clothing.'  " 

The  editorial  comment  upon  the  above,  as  it  appeared  in  The  Alarm^ 
is  as  follows:  "A  hint  to  the  wise  is  sufficient.  Of  course  General 
Sheridan  is  too  modest  to  tell  us  that  he  himself  and  army  will  be 
powerless  in  the  coming  revolution  between  the  propertied  and  property- 
less  classes.  Only  in  foreign  wars  can  the  usual  weapons  of  warfare  be 
used  to  any  advantage.  One  dynamite  bomb  properly  placed  will  destroy 
a  regiment  of  soldiers;  a  weapon  easily  made  and  carried  with  perfect 
safety  in  the  pockets  of  one's  clothing.  The  first  regiment  may  as  Avell 
disband,  for  if  it  should  ever  level  its  guns  upon  the  workingmen  of 
Chicago  it  can  be  totally  annihilated." 

Again  the  court  says:  ''  He  (Parsons)  had  said  to  them  (referring 
totbe  people  assembled  at  the  Haymarket)  Saturday,  April  24,  1886, 
just  ten  days  before  May  4,  in  the  last  issue  of  The  Alarm  that  had 
appeared:  '  Workingmen,  to  arms!  War  to  the  palace,  peace  to  the 
cottage,  and  death  to  luxurious  idleness!     The  wage  system  is  the  only 


180  APPENDIX. 

cause  of  the  world's  misery.  It  is  supported  by  the  rich  ckisses,  and  to 
destroy  it  they  must  be  either  made  to  work  or  die.  One  pound  of 
dynamite  is  better  than  a  bushel  of  ballots!  Make  your  demand  for 
eight  hours  with  weapons  in  your  hands  to  meet  the  capitalist  blood- 
hounds— police  and  militia — in  a  proper  manner.'  " 

The  record  will  show  that  this  article  was  not  written  by  me,  but  was 
published  as  a  news  item.  By  referring  to  the  columns  of  Tlie  Alarm 
the  following  editorial  comment  appears  attached  to  the  above  article, 
viz.:  "The  above  handbill  was  sent  to  us  from  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  as 
having  been  posted  all  over  that  city  last  week.  Our  correspondent 
says  that  the  police  tore  them  down  wherever  they  found  them." 

The  court,  continuing,  says:  "At  the  close  of  another  article  in 
the  same  issue  he  said;  '  The  social  war  has  come,  and  whoever  is  not 
with  us  is  against  us.'""  Assistant  State's  Attorney  Walker  read  this 
article  i6  the  jury,  and  at  its  conclusion  stated  that  it  bore  my  initials 
and  was  my  article.  It  is  a  matter  within  the  knowledge  of  everyone 
then  present,  that  I  interrupted  him  and  called  his  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  article  did  not  bear  my  initials  and  that  I  was  not  its  author. 
Mr.  Walker  corrected  his  mistake  to  the  jury. 

Now  these  are  the  three  articles  quoted  by  the  supreme  court  as 
proof  of  my  guilt  as  an  accessory  in  a  conspiracy  to  murder  officer 
Degan.  The  record  will  prove  what  I  say.  Now  as  to  my  speeches. 
All  of  them,  with  one  exception,  purporting  to  be  my  utterances  at,  the 
Hay  market  are  given  from  the  excited  imagination  and  perverted  mem- 
ories of  newspaper  reporters.  Mr.  English,  who  alone  took  shorthand 
notes  and  swore  to  their  correctness,  reports  me  as  saying:  "  It  is  time 
to  raise  a  note  of  warning.  There  is  nothing  in  the  eight-hour  move- 
ment to  excite  the  capitalist.  Don't  you  know  that  the  military  are 
under  arms,  and  a  Gatling  gun  is  ready  to  mow  you  down?  Was  this 
Germany,  or  Russia,  or  Spain?  [A  voice:  '  It  looks  like  it.']  When- 
ever you  make  a  demand  for  eight  hours'  pay.  or  increase  of  pay,  the 
militia  and  deputy  sheriffs  and  the  Pinkerton  men  are  called  out,  and 
you  are  shot  and  clubbed  and  murdered  in  the  streets.  I  am  not  here 
for  the  purpose  of  inciting  anybody,  but  to  speak  out — to  tell  the  facts 
as  thev  exist,  even  though  it  shall  cost  me  my  life  before  morning." 

Mr.  English,  continuing,  said:  "There  is  another  part  of  it  [the 
speech]  right  here.  'It  behooves  you,  as  you  love  your  wife  and  children, 
if  you  don't  want  to  see  them  perish  with  hunger,  killed,  or  cut  down 
like  dogs  on  the  street — Americans,  in  the  interest  of  your  liberty  and 
independence,  to  arm,  arm  yourselves !'  " 

This,  be  it  remembered,  is  a  garbled  extract,  and  it  is  a  matter  of 
record  that  reporter  English  testified  that  he  was  instructed  by  the 
proprietor  of  his  paper  to  report  only  the  inflammatory  portions  of  the 
speeches  made  at  that  meeting.  Mayor  Harrison,  who  was  present  and 
heard  this  speech,  testified  before  the  jury  that  it  was  simply  "a  violent 
political  harangue,"  and  did  not  call  for  his  interference  as  a  peace 
officer. 

The  speech  delivered  by  me  at  the  Haymarket,  and  which  I 
repeated  before  the  jury,  is  a  matter  of  record  and  undisputed;  and  I 


APPENDIX.  281 

challenge  anyone  to  show  therein  that  I  incited  anyone  to  acts  of 
violence.  The  extract  reported  by  Mr.  English,  when  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  what  preceded  and  what  followed,  can  not  be  construed  by  the 
wildest  imagination  as  incitement  to  violence. 

Extracts  from  three  other  speeches  alleged  to  have  been  delivered 
by  me  more  than  one  year  prior  to  May  4,  188(),  are  given.  Two  of 
these  speeches  were  reported  from  the  memory  of  the  Pinkerton  detec- 
tive, Johnson.  These  are  the  speeches  quoted  by  the  court  as  proof 
of  my  guilt  as  accessory  to  the  murder  of  Degan.  Where,  then  is 
the  connection  between  these  speeches  and  the  murder  of  Degan?  I 
am  bold  to  declare  that  such  connection  is  imperceptible  to  the  eye  of  a 
fair  and  unprejudiced  mind.  But  the  honorable  body,  the  supreme 
court  of  Illinois,  has  condemned  me  to  death  for  speeches  I  never  made 
and  articles  I  never  wrote.  In  the  affirmation  of  the  death  sentence  the 
court  has  ''assumed,'  ''supposed,"  "guessed,"  "surmised"  and  "presumed" 
that  I  said  and  did  "so  and  so."     This  the  record  fully  proves. 

The  court  says :  "  Spies,  Schwab,  Parsons  and  Engel  were 
responsible  for  the  articles  written  and  published  by  them  as  above 
shown.  Spies,  Schwab,  Fielden,  Parsons  and  Engel  were  responsible 
for  the  speeches  made  by  them  respectively,  and  there  is  evidence  in 
the  record  tending  to  show  that  the  death  of  Degan  occurred  during 
the  prosecution  of  a  conspiracy  planned  by  the  members  of  the  Inter- 
national groups  who  read  these  articles  and  heard  those  speeches." 

Now  I  defy  any  on  ■  to  show  from  the  record  the  proof  that  I  wrote 
more  than  one  of  the  many  articles  alleged  to  have  been  written  by  me. 
Yet  the  supreme  court  says  that  I  wrote  and  am  responsible  for  all  of 
them.  Again,  concerning  the  alleged  speeches,  they  were  reported  by 
the  Pinkerton  detective,  Johnson,  who  was,  as  the  record  shows, 
employed  by  Lyman  J.  Gage,  vice-president  of  the  First  National  hank, 
as  the  agent  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  an  organization  composed  of 
the  millionaire  employers  of  Chicago.  I  submit  to  a  candid  world  if 
this  hired  spy  would  not  make  false  reports  to  earn  his  blood  money. 
Thus  it  is  for  speeches  I  did  not  make  and  articles  I  did  not  write  I  am 
sentenced  to  die  because  the  court  "assumes"  that  these  articles  influ- 
enced some  unknown  and  still  unidentified  person  to  throw  the  bomlj 
that  killed  Degan.     Is  this  law?     Is  this  justice? 

The  supreme  court  in  affirming  the  sentence  of  death  upon  me, 
proceeds  to  give  further  reasons,  as  follows: 

"Two  circumstances  are  to  be  noted:  First,  it  can  hardly  be  said 
that  Parsons  was  absent  from  the  Haymarket  meeting  when  he  went 
into  Zepf's  hall.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  latter  place  was 
only  a  few  steps  north  of  the  speakers'  wagon,  and  in  sight  from  it. 
We  do  not  think  that  the  defendant  Parsons  could  escape  his  share  of 
the  responsibility  for  the  explosion  at  the  Haymarket  because  he  step]ied 
into  a  neighboring  saloon  and  looked  at  the  explosion  through  a  window. 
While  he  was  speaking,  men  stood  around  him  with  arms  in  their 
hands.  Many  of  these  were  members  of  the  armed  sections  of  the  Inter- 
national groups.  Among  them  were  men  who  belonged  to  the  Inter- 
national Rifles,  an  organization  in  which  he  himself  was  an  officer,  and 


J^^2  APPENDIX. 

with  which  he  had  been  drilling  in  preparation  for  the  events  then 
transpiring." 

The  records  of  the  trial  will  show  that  not  one  of  the  foregoing 
allegations  is  true.  The  facts  are  these:  Zepf's  hall  is  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Lake  and  Desplaines  streets,  just  one  block  north  of  the 
speakers'  wagon.  The  court  says:  '*It  was  only  a  few  steps  north  of 
the  speakers  wagon."  The  court  says  further  that,  "  it  can  hardly  be 
said  that  Parsons  was  absent  from  the  Hayniarket  meeting,  when  he 
was  at  Zepf's  hall."  If  this  is  correct  logic,  then  I  was  at  two  different 
places  a  block  apart  at  the  same  instant.  Truly,  the  day  of  miracles  has 
not  yet  passed.  Again,  the  record  will  show  that  I  did  not  ^'  step  into  a 
neighboring  saloon  and  look  at  the  explosion  through  a  window."  It 
will  show  that  1  went  to  Zepf  s  hall,  one  block  distant,  and  across  Lake 
street,  accompanied  by  my  wife  and  another  lady,  and  my  two  children 
(a  girl  of  five  and  a  boy  of  seven  years  of  age,)  they  having  sat  upon  a 
wagon  about  ten  feet  from  the  speakers'  wagon  throughout  my  speech; 
that  it  looked  like  rain;  that  we  had  started  home,  and  went  into  Zepf's 
hall  to  wait  for  the  meeting  to  adjourn,  and  walk  home  in  company 
with  a  lot  of  friends  who  lived  in  that  direction.  Zepf's  building  is  on 
the  corner,  and  opens  on  the  street  with  a  triangular  door  six  feet  wide. 
Myself  and  ladies  and  children  were  just  inside  the  door.  Here,  while 
waiting  for  our  friends  and  looking  toward  the  meeting,  I  had  a  fair 
view  of  the  explosion.     All  this  the  record  will  show. 

It  would  seem  that,  according  to  circumstances,  a  block  is  at  one 
time  "a  few  steps,"  or  a  ^'few  steps"  is  ''more  than  a  block,"  as  'the 
case  may  suit.  The  logical  as  well  as  the  imaginative  faculties  of  the 
supreme  court  are  further  illustrated  in  a  most  striking  manner  by  the 
credence  of  the  court  to  the  "yarn'^  of  a  reporter,  who  testifies  that 
Spies  had  described  to  him  the  "  czar"  bomb  and  the  men  who  were  to 
use  them,  as  follows: 

"'  He  spoke  of  a  body  of  tall,  strong  men  in  their  organization  who 
could  throw  bombs  weighing  five  pounds  150  paces.  He  stated  that  the 
bombs  in  question  were  to  be  used  in  case  of  conflict  witli  the  police  or 
militia.'^ 

The  court  gives  this  sort  of  testimony  as  proof  of  the  existence  of 
a  conspiracy  to  murder  Degan.  Wonderful  credulity!  To  throw  a  five- 
pound  bomb  150  paces  or  yards  is  to  throw  it  450  feet  or  one-quarter  of 
a  mile.  Gulliver,  in  his  travels  among  the  Brobdingnagian  race,  tells 
of  the  giants  he  met,  and  we  have  also  heard  of  the  giants  of  Patagonia, 
but  we  did  not  know  until  now  that  they  were  Lilliputians  as  compared 
with  the  "Anarchist  Swedes"  of  Chicago.  The  court  proceeds  to  say: 
"  While  he  (Parsons)  was  speaking,  men  stood  around  him  with  arms 
in  their  hands.'''  The  record,  as  quoted  by  the  court,  shows  that  only 
one  man  flourished  a  pistol,  not  a  number  of  men.  Again,  the  court 
says:  "Most  of  the  men  were  members  of  the  armed  sections  of  the 
International  groups/'  thus  making  it  appear  that  many  of  these  men 
(when  there  was  only  one  who  was  even  alleged  to  have  exhibited  a 
pistol )  were  armed. 

The  court  says:     "Among  them  were  men  who  belonged  to  the 


APPENDIX.  183 

International  Rifles,  an  armed  organization,  in  which  he  himself  was  an 
officer,  and  in  which  he  had  been  drilling  in  preparation  for  the  events 
then  transpiring/' 

Now,  I  challenge  the  supreme  court  or  any  other  honorable  gentle- 
men to  prove  from  the  record  that  there  ever  existed  such  an  organiza- 
tion as  that  armed  section  of  the  American  group  known  as  the  ''  Inter- 
national Rifles/'  It  can  not  be  done.  The  record  shows  that  some 
members  of  the  American  group  did  organize  the  "  International  Rifles,'' 
which  never  met  but  four  or  five  times,  was  never  armed  with  rifles  or 
any  other  weapons,  and  disbanded  nearly  one  year  before  May  4,  1886. 

The  Pinkerton  man,  Johnson,  says  that  dynamite  bombs  were 
exhibited  in  the  presence  of  the  International  Rifles.  It  will  take  cor- 
roborative testimony  before  the  American  people  will  credit  the  state- 
ments of  such  a  man  engaged  for  such  a  purpose,  and  it  is  well 
known  that  supreme  courts  have  decided  that  testimony  of  detec- 
tives should  be  taken  with  great  caution. 

I  appeal  to  the  American  people  in  their  love  of  justice  and  fair 
play.  I  submit  that  the  record  does  not  show  my  guilt  of  the  crime 
of  murder,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  proves  my  innocence. 

Against  me  in  this  trial  all  the  rules  of  law  and  evidence  have 
been  reversed  in  that  I  have  been  held  as  guilty  until  I  proved  my 
innocence. 

I  have  been  tried  ostensibly  for  murder,  but  in  reality  for 
anarchism.  I  have  been  proven  guilty  of  being  an  anarchist^  and  con- 
demned to  die  for  that  reason.  The  state's  attorney  said  in  his  state- 
ment before  court  and  jury  in  the  beginning  of  the  trial:  "These 
defendants  were  picked  out  and  indicted  by  the  grand  jury,  they  are  no 
more  guilty  than  the  thousands  who  follow  them.  They  are  picked  out 
because  they  are  leaders.  Convict  them,  and  our  society  is  safe."  And 
in  their  last  appeal  to  the  jury  the  prosecution  said:  "Anarchy  is  on 
trial.  ■  Hang  these  eight  men  and  save  our  institutions.  These  are  the 
leaders.     Make  examples  of  them."     This  is  a  matter  of  record. 

So  far  as  I  have  had  time  to  examine  the  record  I  find  the  same 
fabrications  and  perversion  of  testimony  against  all  my  comrades  as 
exists  against  myself.  I  therefore  again  appeal  to  the  American  people 
to  avert  the  crime  of  judicial  murder,  and  this  appeal  I  have  faith  will 
not  be  in  vain. 

My  ancestors  partock  of  all  the  hardships  incident  to  the  establish- 
ment of  this  republic.  They  fought,  bled,  and  some  of  them  died, 
that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  might  live  and  the  American  flag 
might  wave  in  triumph  over  those  who  claim  the  "divine  right  of 
kings  to  rule."  Shall  that  flag  now,  after  a  century's  triumph,  trail  in 
the  mire  of  oppression,  and  protect  the  perpetration  of  outrages  and 
oppressions  that  put  the  older  despotisms  of  Europe  to  shame? 

Knowing  myself  innocent  of  crime  I  came  forward  and  gave  my- 
:self  up  for  trial.  I  felt  that  it  was  my  duty  to  take  my  chances  with 
the  rest  of  my  comrades.  I  sought  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  before  a 
jury  of  my  peers,  and  knew  that  before  any  fair-minded  jury  I  could 
•with  little  difficulty  be  cleared.     I  preferred  to  be  tried  and  take  the 


184  APPENDIX. 

chances  of  an  acquittal  with  my  friends  to  being  hunted  as  a  felon^ 
Have  I  had  a  fair  trial? 

The  lovers  of  justice  and  fair  play  are  assiduously  engaged  in  an 
effort  to  thwart  the  consummation  of  judicial  murder  by  the  commuta- 
tion of  sentence  to  prison.  I  speak  for  myself  alone  when  I  say 
that  for  this  I  thank  them  and  appreciate  their  efforts,  but  I  am  an 
innocent  man.  I  have  violated  no  law;  I  have  committed  no  offense 
against  anyone's  rights.  I  am  simply  the  victim  of  the  malice  of  those 
whose  anger  has  been  aroused  by  the  power,  strength  and  independence 
of  the  labor  organizations  of  America.  I  am  a  sacrifice  to  those  who 
say:  "These  men  may  be  innocent.  No  mattter.  They  are  anarchists. 
We  must  hang  them  anyway." 

My  counsel  informs  me  that  every  effort  will  be  made  to  take  this 
case  before  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  land  and  that  there  is  a  strong 
hope  of  a  hearing  there.  But  I  am  also  reliably  informed  that  from 
three  to  five  years  will  elapse  before  the  supreme  court  of  the  United 
States  can  hear  and  adjudge  the  case.  Since  surrendering  myself  to 
the  authorities  I  have  been  locked  up  in  close  confinement  twenty-one 
hours  of  every  twenty-four  for  six  days,  and  from  Saturday  afternoon 
until  Monday  morning  (thirty  eight  hours)  each  week  in  a  noisome 
cell,  without  a  ray  of  sunshine  or  a  breath  of  pure  air.  To  be  com- 
pelled to  bear  this  for  five,  or  even  three  years,  would  be  to  suffer  a 
lingering  death,  and  it  is  only  a  matter  of  serious  consideration  with 
me,  whether  I  ought  to  accept  the  verdict  as  it  stands,  rather  than  die 
by  inches  under  such  conditions.  I  am  prepared  to  die.  I  am  ready,  if 
need  be,  to  lay  down  my  life  for  my  rights  and  the  rights  of  mj 
fellowmen.  But  I  object  to  being  killed  on  false  and  unproven  accusa^ 
tions.  Therefore  I  cannot  countenance  or  accept  the  effort  of  those 
who  would  endeavor  to  procure  a  commutation  of  my  sentence  to 
imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary.  Neither  do  I  approve  of  any  further 
appeals  to  the  courts  of  law.  I  believe  them  to  be  all  alike — the 
agency  of  the  privileged  class  to  perpetuate  their  power,  to  oppress  and 
plunder  the  toiling  masses.  As  between  capital  and  its  legal  rights 
and  labor  and  its  natural  rights,  the  courts  of  law  must  side  with 
the  capitalist  class.  To  appeal  to  them  is  vain.  It  is  the  appeal  of  the 
wage  slave  to  his  capitalistic  master  for  liberty.  The  answer  is  curses, 
blows,  imprisonment,  and  death. 

If  I  had  never  been  an  anarchist  before,  my  experience  with 
courts  and  the  laws  of  the  governing  classes  would  make  an  anarchist 
of  me  now.  What  is  anarchism  ?  It  is  a  state  of  society  without  any 
central  or  governing  power.  Upon  this  subject  the  court  in  its  affirma- 
tion of  the  death  sentence  defines  the  object  of  the  International 
Working  Peoples'  association  as  follows: 

"  It  is  designed  to  bring  about  a  social  revolution.  Social  revolution 
meant  the  destruction  of  the  right  of  private  ownership  of  property,  or 
the  right  of  the  individual  to  own  property.  It  meant  the  bringing 
about  of  a  state  of  society  in  which  all  property  should  be  held  in 
common." 

If  this  definition  is  right  then  it  is  very  similar  to  that   advocated 


APPENDIX.  XS5' 

by  Jesus  Christ,  for  proof  of  which  refer  to  the  fourth  and  fifth  chap- 
ters of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  also  Matthew  xxi.,  10  to  14;  and 
Mark  xi,  15  to  19. 

No,  I  am  not  guilty ;  I  have  not  been  proven  guilty.  T  leave  it  to  you 
to  decide  from  the  record  itself  as  to  my  guilt  or  innocence.  I  can  not, 
therefore,  accept  a  commutation  to  imprisonment.  I  appeal  not  for 
mercy,  but  for  justice.  As  for  me,  the  utterance  of  Patrick  Henry  is. 
so  apropos  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  let  him  speak : 

''  Is  life  so  dear  and  peace  so  sweet  as  to  be  purchased  at  the  price 
of  chains  and  slavery?  Forbid  it,  Almighty  God!  I  know  not  what 
course  others  may  pursue,  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty,  or  give  me 
death.  A.  R.  Paksons. 

Chicago,  III.,  Sept.  21, 1887.     [Prison  cell  No.  29]. 


Parsons'  Open  Letter  to  Goyernor  Oglesbt. 

To  His  Excellencif  Richard  J.  Ogleshy\  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Illinois — Dear  Sir:  1  am  aware  that  petitions  are  being  signed  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  addressed  to  you,  beseeching  you  to 
interpose  your  prerogative  and  commute  the  sentences  of  myself  and 
comrades  from  death  to  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary.  You  are,  I 
am  told,  a  good  constitutional  lawyer  and  a  sincere  man.  I  therefore 
beg  of  you  to  examine  the  record  of  the  trial,  and  then  conscientiously 
decide  for  yourself  as  to  my  guilt  or  innocence.  I  know  that  as  a  just 
man  you  will  decide  in  accordance  with  the  facts,  the  truth,  and  the 
justice  of  this  case.  But  I  write  to  reiterate  the  declaration  made  in 
my  published  appeal  to  the  people  of  America,  September  21,  1887.  I 
am  guilty  or  I  am  innocent  of  the  charge  for  which  I  have  been  con- 
demned to  die.  If  guilty,  then  I  prefer  death  rather  than  to  go  "like 
the  quarry  slave  at  night  scourged  to  his  dungeon.'"  If  innocent,  then 
I  am  entitled  to  and  will  accept  nothing  less  than  liberty.  The  records 
of  the  trial  made  in  Judge  Gary^s  court  prove  my  innocence  of  the 
crime  of  murder.  But  there  exists  a  conspiracy  to  judicially  murder 
myself  and  imprisoned  companions  in  the  name  and  by  virtue  of  the 
authority  of  the  State.  History  records  every  despotic,  arbitrary  deed 
of  the  peoples'  rulers  as  having  been  done  in  the  name  of  the  people^ 
even  to  the  destruction  of  the  liberties  of  the  people. 

I  am  a  helpless  prisoner  and  completely  in  the  power  of  the  author-^ 
ities,  but  I  strongly  protest  against  being  taken  from  my  cell  and 
carried  to  the  penitentiary  as  a  felon.  Therefore  in  the  name  of 
the  people,  whose  liberty  is  being  destroyed;  in  the  name  of  peace  and 
justice,  I  protest  against  the  consummation  of  this  judicial  murder; 
this  proposed  strangulation  of  freedom  on  American  soil.     I  speak  for 


2g()  APPENDIX. 

myself,  I  know  not  what  course  others  may  pursue,  but  for  myself  I 
reject  the  petition  for  my  imprisonment.  I  am  innocent,  and  1  say  to 
jou  that  under  no  circumstances  will  I  accept  a  commutation  to 
imprisonment.  In  the  name  of  the  American  people  I  demand  my 
right,  my  lawful,  constitutional,  natural,  inalienable  right  to  liberty. 
Respectfully  yours, 

Albert  R.  Parsoi^^s. 
Prison  Cell  29,  Chicago,  111.,  October  13,  1887. 


Law  vs.  Liberty. 


[The  Alarm,  Dec.  3,  1887.] 

"Anarchy  is  license,"  exclaim  the  law-abiding  citizens. 

"  If  this  is  true,  then  what  in  the  name  of  liberty  is  law?"  retort 
the  anarchists. 

What  is  law?  It  is  a  command,  an  order,  and  the  State  enforces 
compliance. 

What  is  the  State?  The  legislative^  judicial  and  executive  powers 
are  what  constitute  the  State.  The  law  is  manufactured,  "made  '^  to 
order  by  the  legislators,  and  then  expounded  and  applied  by  the  judges, 
and  then  enforced  or  executed  by  the  police,  militia,  army,  and  navy. 

Law  being  a  command  or  order  to  do  or  refrain  from  doing  some- 
thing, it  is,  therefore,  not  liberty,  but  license,  and  consequently  des- 
potic. Law^ — statute  law — is  designed  to  force  or  compel  some  person 
or  persons  to  respect  and  support  the  privileges  it  confers  upon  some 
other  person  or  persons.  Law— statute  law—is  license,  because  it  estab- 
lishes the  inequality  of  rights  and  duties,  and  maintains  the  inequality 
of  conditions  and  opportunities.  "Equal  rights  lender  the  law,  '  is  a' 
misnomer,  since  the  only  function  of  statute  law  is  the  creation  of  priv- 
ileges and  inequalities.  Law— statute  law— is  the  instrumentality  by 
means  of  which  people  are  made  to  serve  and  obey,  to  work  and  suffer 
for  other  peoples  benefit.  .Law— statue  law— is  the  denial  of  a  person's 
natural,  inalienable  rights  by  other  persons.  There  are  two  kinds  of 
law— natural  and  artificial.  The  artificial  or  manufactured  law  als(> 
manufactures  police,  militia^  and  prisons.  Law— statute  law— is  "the 
coward's  weapon,  the  tool  of  the  thief."  Cowardly,  because  man  would 
not  or  could  not  otherwise  degrade,  enslave,  and  murder  his  fellow  man. 
Rascally,  because  without  it  man  would  not  and  could  not  dominate  and 
exploit  his  fellow  man.  Therefore,  "  equal  rights  under  the  law  "  means 
no  more  nor  less  than  the  rascality  necessary  to  take  an  advantage  and 
the  cowardly  brutality  necessary  to  keep  it.  This  is  law;  its  sole  and 
only  purpose. 

Life  and  liberty  insures  happiness;  privilege  destroys  both.  Law  is 
privilege,  is  license.  Life  is  denied  to  all  those  who  are  denied  the 
«qual  right  to  the  free  use  of  the  means  of  existence — capital.     Only  by 


APPENDIX.  187 

the  nse  of  the  means  of  subsistence  is  life  possibly  maintained;  and  only 
by  the  equal  right  to  its  free  use  is  liberty  possible.  Happiness  is  the 
child,  and  its  parents  are  life  and  liberty.  The  slave  has  life.  The 
freeman  possesses  both  liberty  and  life.  The  dependence  of  one  person 
upon  another  for  permission  to  work  and  eat  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  wage-slave  system  of  industry  is  built.  Capital  is  a  la\y-pro- 
tected  institution.  It  is  privileged  property.  There  is  no  such  thing  in 
nature's  law  as  privilege,  chartered  rights.  This  moloch  devours  nine- 
tentlis  of  the  human  race,  who  feed  its  ravenous  jaws  with  their  own 
flesh  and  blood.  This  beast,  ''  the  property  beast,''  is  what  is  otherwise 
known  as  hiAV  and  government.  Law — statute  law — is  license,  because 
its  sole  and  only  function  is  to  deny  the  producer  the  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  his  product. 

Law  does  not  and  cannot,  in  fact,  create  anything  but  privile^^es. 
Rights  exist  inherently.  Labor,  and  labor  alone,  does  or  can  create 
wealth,  and  the  wealth-creators  are  poor  by  virtue  of  and  solely  on 
account  of  law.  Law  takes  wealth  from  the  producer  and  bestows  it 
upon  the  non-})rodacer;  it  curses  industry  with  poverty  and  blesses  idle- 
ness with  wealth.  Law  is  the  mainspring  of  everlasting  contention 
among  men.  It  creates  classes,  produces  masters  and  slaves;  it  is  the 
source  of  ignorance,  disease,  crime,  war,  of  every  moral,  social  and  phys- 
ical evil.  Law  creates  and  perpetuates  poverty;  first,  by  depriving  the 
producers  and  keeping  them  poor,  and,  secondly,  by  preventing  the 
unlimited  application  of  wealth-creating  forces  in  steam,  electricity  and 
machinery. 

Law — statute  law — is  an  insult  to  our  natures,  a  repression  upon 
human  capacity,  and  the  degradation  of  social  effort.  Do  away  with  all 
compulsory  statutes;  abolish  all  legislative  enactments  based  upon 
authority,  as  a  conspiracy  against  man's  ability  to  co-operate.  Liberty 
calls  out  individuality,  co-operative  activity,  and  offers  scope  for  the 
highest  development  of  our  powers.  Cease  treating  men  and  women  as 
children.  Remove  the  crutches  and  society  will  spontaneously  respond 
to  every  new  demand,  and  men  and  women  will  walk  freely  and  co-oper- 
ate to  secure  all  that  is  needful, 

Albert  R.  Parsons.  . 


188  APPKNmX. 

Views  of  General  Parsons. 

Norfolk,  Va.,  Sept.  16. — Gen.  W.  H.  Parsons,  the  eldest  brother  of  A. 
A.  K.  Parsons,  the  condemned  anarchist,  was  interviewed  to-day  by  your  cor- 
respondent at  Newport  News,  where  he  holds  the  position  of  inspector  of 
customs  and  is  much  respected  for  his  scholarly  attainments  and  his  high- 
toned  deportment.  The  general  has  been  much  averse  to  being  inter- 
viewed and  until  the  present  has  declined  to  converse  with  reporters  on  the 
subject  of  his  brother's  sentence.  On  being  asked  to  give  a  brief  outline 
of  the  life  of  A.  R.  Parsons  he  said: 

"A.  E.  Parsons  was  bom  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  June  20,  1848,  and 
is,  therefore,  just  39  years  of  age.  He  is  of  pilgrim -father  parentage,  his 
ancestors — five  brothers — landing  together  in  1682  on  Narragansett  Bay 
and  their  descendents  of  that  name,  according  to  John  Mason  of  Virginia, 
who  cites  the  authority  of  Berknap's  "History  of  New  England,"  were 
proverbial  for  good  scholarship  and  honorable  characer.  Gen.  Samuel 
Parsons,  from  whom  Albert's  father  was  named,  was  a  major-general  of 
the  revolutionary  war,  and  his  grand-uncle  of  the  same  name  lost  an  arm 
in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Theophilus  Parsons,  the  judicial  author,  was 
the  pivot  of  the  law,  not  only  of  New  England  but  of  American  jurispru- 
dence in  his  day.  It  has  been  the  boast  of  all  of  that  name  in  all  lands 
and  states  that  no  one  who  bore  it  was  ever  convicted  or  justly  charged 
with  a  felonious  offense. 

"  Albert  R.  Parsons,  the  accused  anarchist,  is  not  an  exception.  He 
is  a  political  offender,  and  not  a  criminal.  We  assert  this,  because  the 
incidents  of  his  biography,  upon  which  you  interrogate  me,  will  demon- 
strate this.  His  father  moved  to  Alabama  in  1830.  A.  R.  Parsons  was 
left  an  orphan  at  4  years  of  age  and  joined  my  family  in  Tyler,  Tex., 
where  I  was  at  that  time  conducting  the  Tyler  Telegraph  as  owner  and 
editor.  At  12  years  of  age  he  entered  the  Galveston  News  office  and  became 
a  member  of  the  family  of  its  founder  and  proprietor,  the  venerable  Willard 
Richardson,  to  learn  the  art  preservative  of  all  arts,  of  which  profession 
and  the  Typographical  Union  he  is  now  a  member  of  high  standing  as  well 
as  a  journalist  of  ripe  experience,  and  was  at  the  ])eriod  of  his  arrest  as 
accessory  to  the  tragedy  of  May  4,  1886." 

•  '^  Will  you  give  his  career'  during  and  since  the  war?" 

"When  the  war  broke  out  he  was  only  13  years  old,  but  he  joined  a 
confederate  infantry  company  called  the  Lone  Star  Grays.  He  was  with 
them  over  a  year  and  assisted  in  the  capture  of  Gen,  Twiggs.  He  joined 
an  artillery  company  at  Sabine  Pass  under  his  brother,  Capt.  Richard 
Parsons,  who  died  at  his  post,  of  yellow  fever.  A.  R.  Parsons  then 
attached  himself  to  his  elder  brother's  brigade — my  own^ — on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in  Arkansas,  and  became  a  cavalry  scout,  gradua- 
ting after  four  years  service  at  17  years  of  age. 

"  He  edited  the  Waco  Sjjectator  in  1 868.  His  marriage  to  a  Mexican 
lady  of  youth,  beauty  and  genius  occurred  in  Austin,  Texas,  in  1871,  and 
is  a  matter  of  record  in  that  city,  where  mi?cegnation  is  a  crime.  Her 
Spanish  and  Aztec  blood  were  then  never  questioned.  She  speaks  the 
former  language  fluently,  and  was  raised  an  orphan  by  her  uncle,  a  Mex- 
ican ranchero,  and  lived  with  him  in  Johnson  county,  Texas,  until  the  date 


APPENDIX.  189 

of  her  marriage.  By  her  A.  B.  Parsons  has  two  children,  a  boy  and  girl, 
aged  8  and  7  respectively,  the  latter  a  rare  beauty  and  inheriting  the 
vivacity  of  her  mother.  In  1870  he  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Texas 
senate,  and  the  following  year  was  appointed  a  deputy  United  States 
internal  revenue  collector.  He  held  this  office  until  he  went  to  Chicago 
in  1878,  when  he  resumed  his  trade  as  a  compositor  on  the  Times. 

"  In  1876  he  joined  the  socialists.  During  the  labor  troubles  of  the 
following  year  he  was  held  by  the  chief  of  police  for  a  speech  he  had 
made  to  20,000  laboring  men  at  the  Market  Square,  but  was  released  the 
same  night.  He  has  been  a  compositor  on  the  hiter  Ocean  and  the  Daily 
Neii's.  For  three  years  he  filled  the  position  of  president  of  the  trade 
and  labor  association.  He  has  been  nominated  for  alderman  three  times, 
for  congress  twice,  and  once  each  for  sheriff  and  county  clerk.  At  the 
national  convention  of  the  socialistic  labor  party,  held  at  Allegheny,  Pa., 
in  1879,  he  was  nominated  as  the  candidate  for  president  of  the  United 
States.  At  the  time  of  his  voluntary  surrender  to  the  court  he  was  editor 
of  the  Alarm.''^ 

"Will  you  give  his  disposition  and  any  proof  of  his  aversion  to 
violence  or  any  words  cautioning  others  against  inflicting  injury  to  per- 
sons or  property  ?  " 

"A.  R.  Parsons  is  a  philosophical  anarchist  and  claims  the  gift  of 
prophecy.  He  has  never  counseled  revolution,  but  has  prophesied  revo- 
lution. In  the  prophetic  words  addressed  to  Mr.  T.  V.  Powderly  from 
the  Chicago  bastile,  July  4,  1886,  he  said  : 

"  'Whether  we  live  or  whether  we  die  the  social  revolution  is  inevi- 
table. The  boundaries  of  human  freedom  must  be  enlarged  and  widened. 
The  seventeenth  century  was  a  struggle  for  religious  liberty ;  the  eighteenth 
for  political  equality,  and  in  the  nineteenth  century  mankind  is  demand- 
ing economic  or  industrial  freedom.  The  fruition  of  this  struggle  means 
the  social  revolution.  We  see  it  coming;  we  predict  it;  we  hail  it  with 
joy.     Are  we  criminals  for  that?'' ' 

"As  I  am  myself  an  old  time,  original  Jeffersonian  democrat,  believing 
that  all  power  where  not  expressly  delegated  to  the  state,  is  inherently  in 
the  people  and  not  in  corporations,  and  that  the  ballot  is  the  sole  and 
final  arbiter  of  any  existing  grievances,  I  frequently  expostulated  with 
him  on  the  idea  involved  in  the  word  anarchy.  His  invariable  reply  to 
me,  with  the  bars  between  us  and  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold  impending 
above  him,  was: 

"  'I  am  not  a  revolutionist,  for  all  revolutions  are  not  made  by  agita- 
tors and  prophets.  They  are  the  creatures  of  wrongs  inflicted  by  the 
privileged  few  and  their  tools  and  agencies,  the  law-maker,  the  courts, 
and  the  executive  force  whether  a  pliant  proletarian  guard  called  police, 
or  the  new  organized  reserves  of  the  police,  known  as  our  militia.  I  do 
not  seek  to  make  revolution.  We  simply  see  it  coming;  we  predict  it. 
Am  I  a  criminal  for  that  ?  Who  dreamed  among  the  masses  of  events  of 
1861-5?  I  now  prophesy  the  downfall  of  wage  slavery  or  the  wage- slavery 
system  and  its  replacement  by  the  principle  of  co-operation  and  associa- 
tion between  labor  and  capital.  As  I  witnessed  the  overthrow  of  chattel 
slavery  and  now  recognize  the  divinity  which  shaped  that  stupendous  re- 
sult, so  I  see  that  hand  in  the  events,  bv  no  means  circumscribed,  now 


190  APPENDIX. 

impending  over  my  native  land  as  well  as  over  Europe — the  emancipa- 
tion of  my  own  class.  Every  government,  including  our  own  as  now 
organized,  is  a  conspiracy  to  enslave  labor  whether  of  the  hand  or  brain. 
Coercion  is  the  basis  of  this  conspiracy,  and  hence  we  would  overthrow  all 
existing  law  which  fosters  and  maintains  it.  Labor  will  fight,  but  will 
only  fight  in  self-defense.  The  universal  depression  and  suffering  and 
pauperism  in  Europe,  as  well  as  America,  is  the  source  of  discontent  and 
unrest  and  is  fomenting  a  political  cyclone. '  " 

"  To  these  views  frequently  expressed  when  pressed  for  his  purpose, 
I  would  interpose  the  plea  that  the  people  would  yet  administer  the  cor- 
rective for  existing  evils  through  the  machinery  of  the  ballot,  as  this  was 
a  free  representative  government,  and  we  could  not  improve  upon  its  form 
as  a  medium  for  the  expression  of  the  popular  will.  To  this  he  would  in- 
variably reply,  'the  people  will  attempt  to  apply  the  corrective 
through  the  ballot  and  will  measurably  succeed  so  far  as  form  is  concerned; 
but,'  he  would  add,  'the  vested  wrongs  of  the  privileged  class,  although 
in  the  hands  of  a  very  meager  minority,  will  never  be  relinquished 
without  coercion,  as  witness  our  late  civil  war.  This  meager  minority 
will  rebel  against  the  voice  and  vote  of  the  majority  of  the  people  con- 
stitutionally expressed.  They  have  the  example  of  a  wealthy  few  in 
Rome  who  organized  a  mercenary  praetorian  guard  of  10,0()()  policemen 
to  overawe  the  unarmed  populace  of  the  capital  and  held  in  their  pay  the 
rival  legions  recruited  from  the  plebian  classes.  Here  is  where  and  when 
the  future  revolution  will  be  inaugurated.  This  plutocracy  will  rebel 
against  the  democratic  and  republican  masses  and  recruit  their  mercenary 
police  and  praetorian  guards  from  the  very  ranks  of  the  men  who  will 
spoliate  on  both  classes.'  " 

"  That  is  anarchy  as  taught  and  understood  by  A.  R.  Parsons.  I 
often  pressed  him  for  an  exposition  of  the  term  anarchism  as  meant  and 
believed  by  him.  He  invariably  replied  in  substance  that  the  meaning  of 
philosophical  anarchism  was  the  very  antipodes  of  anarchy  as  defined 
and  understood  by  capitalism;  that  Webster's  dictionary  gave  two  mean- 
ings— one,  without  rulers  or  governors ;  and  the  other,  disorder  and  con- 
fusion. The  latter  he  defined  as  capitalistic  anarchy,  such  as  was  now 
witnessed,  he  said,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  all  conditions  of  society 
below  the  privileged  classes  which  had  already  absorbed  and  monopolized 
all  the  opportunities  of  life  and  the  means  of  existence,  except  merely  to 
exist. 

"  To  be  without  rulers  and  governors  invested  with  authority  to  dic- 
tate to  others  against  their  will  and  interests,  he  would  say,  '  is  philosoph- 
ical anarchism,  and  the  state  of  society  which  the  church  is  constantly 
prognostigating  will  usher  in  the  millenial  period  when  all  governments 
will  be  abolished  and  the  principles  of  Christ,  as  taught  by  him  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man  and  the  supreme  fatherhood  of  the  Creator,  will  be 
established.  Man  is  the  agency  through  whom  this  result  will  be  achieved, 
as  God  works  alone  by  such  agencies;  and,  as  without  the  shedding  of 
blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins,  I  believe  that  the  anarchism  of  the 
millenium,  when  there  will  be  but  one  invisible  ruler  and  all  human 
governments  overthrown,  will  be  ushered  in  by  the  most  stupenduous  and 
bloody  revolution  in  the  annals  of  time.     Is    it   criminal   to    report   the 


APPENDIX.  UJl 

prophecy  of  the  seers  and  inspired  men  of  the  sacred  oracles  ?  Am  I  to 
be  executed  for  predicting  that  the  period  when  no  ruler  or  law  save  the 
spirit  of  the  Nazarine  teacher  of  good- will  on  earth  and  peace  to  all  men 
as  the  fruit  of  the  golden  rule  of  the  then  common  brotherhood  of 
man  is  soon  to  be  inaugurated  ?  Then  incarcerate  the  incumbents  of  our 
pulpits,  and  again,  as  of  yore,  stone  the  prophets;  for  so  stone  they 
the  prophets,  even  among  his  chosen  people,  when  sent  to  warn  them 
of  judgment  to  come.'" 

"  What  was  his  action  at  the  meeting  at  which  the  bomb  was  thrown  ?" 

"There  is  no  pretence  that  A.  R.  Parsons  or  that  any  one  of  the 
defendants  threw  or  even  knew  of  the  throwing  of  the  fatal  bomb.  They 
are  all  condemned  as  supposed,  although  not  proven,  accessories,  for  there 
can  be  no  accessories  without  a  principal,  and  there  was  not  even  an 
attempt  to  prove  who  the  principal  was.  He  yet  remains  unknown,  the 
circumstantial  evidence  much  more  strongly  pointing  to  an  agent  of  the 
stock  exchanges  through  Pinkei-ton's  mercenaries  to  break  up  the  eight- 
hour  movement  by  charging  the  offence  on  the  leaders  of  that  movement 
in  Chicago  than  to  these  defendants.  The  New  York  Times  advised  that 
very  coui'se  to  involve  the  leaders  and  thus  break  down  the  eight-hour 
movement  which  was  then  sustained  by  335,000  men.  A.  B.  Parsons  re- 
hearsed on  the  trial  his  Haymarket  speech,  and  it  is  of  record.  It  was  a 
strong  statistical,  philosophical  argument.  At  its  conclusion  Capt.  Black, 
counsel  for  the  defense  asked :  '  When  you  were  referring  in  your  speech 
to  Jay  Gould  or  to  the  southwestern  system  do  you  remember  any  inter- 
ruption from  the  crowd  or  any  response  ?'  to  which  A.  B.  replied  :  'Yes, 
I  omitted  that  in  rehearsing  my  speech  before  the  court  just  concluded. 
Some  one  said:  "Hang  Him!  hang  Gould!"  My  response  to  that  was 
that  it  was  not  a  conflict  between  individuals,  but  for  a  change  of  system, 
and  that  socialism  designed  to  remove  the  cause  which  produced  the 
pauper  and  the  millionaire,  but  did  not  aim  at  the  life  of  individuals.'" 

"Beporter  English  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  and  several  other  report- 
ers present  corroborated  this  statement.  In  fact  is  was  originally  drawn 
out  of  the  reporters  present  before  A.  B.  Parsons  took  the  stand.  It  wa^ 
proven  by  ten  witnesses  that  A.  B.  Parsons  was  in  Zepf's  hall,  at  the 
corner  of  Bandoiph  and  Desplaines  streets  when  the  shell  exploded,  and 
yet  he  is  condemned  to  death  for  having  incited  some  one  to  throw  the 
fatal  bomb.  It  was  proven  that  Lingg  was  two  and  a  half  miles  away  on 
Clyboum  avenue  at  that  hour;  that  Schwab  was  speaking  elsewhere, 
seven  miles  distant ;  that  Engel  was  with  his  family  at  home ;  that 
Neebe  was  not  even  present,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  meeting;  that 
Parsons  had  finished  and  left  the  ground  with  his  family,  and  that  the  only 
two  of  the  eight  present  were  Fielden  and  Spies,  and  they  were  on  the 
speakers'  stand  when  attacked  and  ordered  to  disperse  by  200  armed 
policemen." 

"Is  it  true  he  voluntarily  surrendered  ?" 

"It  is  true  that  conscious  of  his  innocence,  A.  B.  Parsons  voluntarily 
came  into  oi)en  court  on  the  first  day  of  the  trial  and  took  his  seat  with 
the  accused  defendants  at  a  time  when  the  inflamed  prejudices  of  the 
police  rendered  it  doubtful  if  justice  could  be  rendered  with  the  entire 
machinery  of  the  law  in  their  hands.     This  act  tended  largely  to  disarm 


192 


APPENDIX. 


the  hostility  of  disinterested  men  who  believed  in  fair  play,  and  that  justice 
should  be  done  though  the  heavens  fall." 

"  Will  the  case,  in  your  judgment,  be  called  to  the  United  States 
supreme  court,  and  on  what  grounds  ?" 

"  It  will;  first,  because  under  the  sixth  amendment  of  the  federal  con- 
stitution it  is  provided  that  in  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall 
enjoy  the  right  to  a  trial  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  state  and  district 
where  the  crime  shall  have  been  committed.  The  fifteenth  amendment 
provides  that  no  state  shall  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  If  these  men  are  executed  the  state  of 
Illinois,  through  its  courts,  will  have  executed  seven  men  without  the  due 
process  provided  and  guaranteed  by  the  constitution,  which  is  the  supreme 
law  and  which  accords  to  the  accused  a  trial  by  an  impartial  jury.  It  was 
proved  on  the  trial  that  the  special  bailiff,  Henry  L.  Ryce,  who  was 
appointed  to  serve  the  special  venire,  said  to  Otis  S.  Favor,  a  reputable 
merchant  in  Chicago,  that  he  was  managing  the  case  against  the  accused 
and  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  that  the  accused  would  hang  as  cer- 
tain as  death.  '  I  am  calling  such  men  as  the  defendants  will  have  to 
challenge  and  so  waste  their  challenges,'  he  said.  This  was  made  a  special 
ground  for  a  new  trial,  although  Judge  Gary  had  refused  the  defendants 
the  privilege  to  introduce  Mr.  Otis  Favor  to  prove  that  the  bailiff  acknowl- 
edged with  a  chuckle  that  he  was  packing  the  jury  so  that  it  would  not  be 
impartial.  Juryman  Adams  admitted  before  the  trial  that  if  he  was  on 
the  jury  he  would  hang  all  of  them.     This  was  proved.     Juror  Denker 

stated  to  two  credible   witnesses  before  the  trial  that  the  whole  d d 

crowd  ought  to  be  hanged.  Several  of  the  jurors,  who  can  be  named,  as 
they  are  all  of  record,  admitted  that  they  were  prejudiced  so  that  it  would 
take  strong  evidence  to  overcome  their  already  predetermined  judgment 
of  their  guilt.  On  this  statement  of  record  the  fourteenth  amendment  can 
be  invoked  and  a  writ  of  error  must  issue  overruling  the  action  of  a  state 
court,  which  has  doomed  seven  men  to  death,  having  denied  them  an 
impartial  trial,  as  required  by  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the  constitu- 
t'ion.  Their  death  would  be  judicial  murder.  Such  would  be  the  sentence 
of  mankind  and  the  verdict  of  history. 

"2.  There  is  a  precedent  from  MisiK)uri  where  a  writ  of  error  was 
for  review  by  the  United  States  supreme  6ourt  on  the  ground  that  the 
evidence  was  obtained  by  unlawful  search  and  seizure,  and  a  violation  of 
the  sanctity  of  letters  unlawfully  seized.  A  letter  to  Mr.  Spies,  written  a 
year  before  the  trial,  was  seized,  after  breaking  open  his  private  editorial 
desk,  and  was  permitted  to  be  read  on  the  trial  by  Judge  Gary,  the  pur- 
pose of  which  was  to  show  he  had  received — not  answered — a  letter  from 
Herr  Most  about  medicine  that  was  good  for  the  relief  of  the  Hocking 
valley  strikers  of  1885.  Evidence  obtained  by  a  violation  of  such  safe- 
guards to  the  citizen  is  a  violation  of  all  rights  guaranteed  by  the  constitu- 
tion. Of  course,  where  courts  are  now  constituted  to  protect  v  ested  wrongs 
in  many  cases,  as  witness  Justice  Field's  decisions  in  California  in  favor 
of  the  Chinese  and  in  protection  of  Senator  Stanford  against  the  Pacific 
commission,  there  is  no  way  to  estimate  the  result  of  even  an  application 
for  a  writ  of  error  in  this  case.     It  may  be  that  blood  is  what  is  wanted 


.    >  APPENDIX.  193 

and  blood  they  must  have,  and  thus  verify  the  saying  that  '  whom  the  gods 
would  destroy  they  first  make  mad.'" 

"What  is  your  own  history  and  political  status?" 

"  I  have  held  positions  of  honor  under  three  governors  and  two  pres- 
idents, I  was  on  the  supreme  court  bench,  a  member  of  the  United  States 
centennial  commission,  was  state  senator,  was  in  the  Charleston  convention 
of  1860,  and  commanded  an  active  cavalry  brigade  in  the  confederate 
service  throughout  the  war.  I  am  a  Jeffersonian  democrat  and  believe  the 
ballot  will  yet  redeem  the  nation." — Correspondence  Daily  News. 


Letter  to  George  Francis  Train. 

Prison  Cell  29,  Chicago,  111.,  Oct.  14,  1887. 

(Htizen  Geo.  Francis  Train,  Champion  of  Free  Speech,  Free  Press  and  Public 

Assemblage  : 

Despotism  of  America's  money -mongers  again  demonstrated.  They 
deny  the  right  of  the  people  to  assemble  to  hear  you  speak  to  them.  Free 
speech!  They  will  not  allow  the  people  to  buy  or  read  the  Psycho- 
Anarchist.  Free  press !  They  interdict  the  right  of  the  people  to  assemble 
and  petition  for  redress  of  grievances.     Right  of  assembly! 

United  States  constitution  nullified  by  Supreme  court's  decision. 
Revolution ! 

The  people  clubbed,  arrested,  imprisoned,  shot  and  hung  in  violation 
of  law  and  constitution  at  behest  of  America's  monopolists. 

Free  speech,  free  press,  and  right  to  assemble  cost  seven  years'  bloody 
revolution  of  1 770.  But  degenerate  Americans  style  those  who  maintain 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  anarchists.  Jefferson,  Adams,  Han- 
cock, Washington,  Franklin,  Paine,  Henry  and  other  revolutionary  sires 
they  ridicule  as  "fools,"  "cranks,"  etc.  America's  plutocrats  of  1887  sneer 
at  these  things. 

Police  censorship  over  press,  speech  and  assemblage!  Russia,  Spain, 
Italy,  France — abashed!  Working-womens'  union  prohibited  by  Chicago 
police  from  singing  the  "Marseilles"  at  social  entertainments! 

Tyrants  forge  missing  link.  Chain  complete.  America  joins  "Inter- 
national Brotherhood  of  Man."  Proletariat  of  every  clime  and  tongue, 
from  Moscow,  Berlin,  Vienna,  Madrid,  London  and  Paris  to  Chicago,  join 
refrain  and  sing  the 

MARSEILLES. 

Ye  sons  of  Toil,  awake  to  glory; 

Hark!  hark,  what  myrads  bid  you  rise! 
Your  children,  wives,  and  grandsires  hoary — 

Behold  their  tears  and  hear  their  cries  ! 

Behold  their  tears  and  hear  their  cries! 
Shall  hateful  tyrants,  mischief  breeding! 

With  hireling  hosts,  a  ruffian  band. 

Affright  and  desolate  the  land, 
While  peace  and  liberty  lie  bleeding? 


194 


APPENDIX. 


To  arms,  to  arms,  ye  brave ! 

The  avenging  sword  unsheath ! 
March  on,  march  on,  all  hearts  resolved. 

On  liberty  or  death! 

With  luxury  and  pride  surrounded, 

The  vile  insatiate  despots  dare. 
Their  thirst  of  power   and  gold   unbounded, 

To  meet  and  vend  the  light  and  air. 

To  meet  and  vend  the  light  and  air; 
Like  beasts  of  burden  would  they  load  us, 

Like  gods  M'ould  bid  their  slaves  adore; 

But  man  is  man,  and  who  is  more? 
Then  shall  they  longer  lash  and  goad  us? 

— Chorus. 

Oh!  Liberty,  can  man  resign  thee 

Once  having  felt  thy  gen'rous  flame? 
Can  dungeons,  bolts,  or  bars  confine  thee? 

Or  whips  thy  noble  spirit  tame? 

Or  whips  thy  noble  spirit  tame? 
Too  long  the  world  has  wept,  bewailing 

That  falsehood's  dagger  tyrants  wield; 

But  freedom  is  our  sword  and  shield, 
And  all  their  arts  are  unavailing. 

— Chorus. 

Onward  !  Citizen  Train!  Freedom  shall  not  perish  !  Let  the  welkin  ring,  and 
from  land  to  land  labor's  innumerable  hosts  proclaim — "Liberty!  Fraternity! 
Equality!"  Salut! 

A.  R.  Parsons, 

Proletar. 


Arreht  of  Mrs.  Parsoxs  and  Children. 

■  Under  the  deep  shadow  of  that  awful  tragedy,  enacted  on  the  eleventh 
day  of  November,  many  shameful  deeds  passed  almost  unnoticed ;  the 
gloom,  so  dense  that  the  close  of  the  century  will  scarcely  see  it  lightened, 
veiled  the  blackness  of  injustices  that  would  have  appalled  the  hearts  of 
the  people  if  thrown  up  against  the  light  of  freedom  in  brighter  days. 
Now,  it  is  well  that  they  be  brought  forth  for  investigation  ;  the  judgment 
of  the  people  must  be  given  on  proceedings  done  in  the  name  of  "law  and 
order,"  iii  this  so-called  free  country. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  extras  of  Friday  Nov.  11th  a 
casual  notice  of  the  arrest  of  Mrs.  Parsons  "for  persistent  disobedience 
of  orders,"  and  that  of  a  lady  friend  for  haranging  the  people "  was 
given.  The  officers  were  reported  as  being  "very  courteous  and  gentle," 
anl  the  ladies  "were  given  arm-chairs  in  the  registry  office  merely  to  keep 
them  away  from  the  crowd  and  prevent  trouble." 

This  is  the  true  story :  On  Thursday  evening  after  Governor  Oglesby's 
tardy  decision  had  been  given,  Mrs.  Parsons  accompanied  by  Mr.  Holmes 


APPENDIX.  195 

and  myself,  went  to  the  jail  to  plead  for  a  last  sad  interview.  She  was 
denied  an  entrance,  but  was  told  by  the  deputy- sheriff  in  charge  that  she 
would  be  admitted  at  half- past  eight  the  following  morning.  At  that 
time  she,  with  her  children  and  myself  was  promptly  as  near  to  the  gates 
as  the  police  would  permit.  Every  street  for  two  blocks  away  leading 
towards  the  jail  was  crossed  by  a  rope  and  guarded  by  a  line  of  police 
armed  with  Winchester  rifles.  At  the  first  corner  Mrs.  Parsons  quietly 
made  known  her  errand.  The  lieutenant  said  she  could  not  get  in  there, 
but  that  she  should  pass  on  to  the  next  corner,  and  the  officer  there  would 
perhaps  let  her  through. 

She  did  so  with  the  same  result.  Another  captain  told  her  she 
must  get  an  order  from  the  sheriff ;  on  inquiring  where  he  could  be 
found,  she  was  told  to  go  on  to  another  corner  where  a  message  might  be 
sent  to  him.  At  this  corner  no  one  knew  anything  about  it  and  again  we 
were  sent  on ;  and  so,  for  more  than  an  hour  we  were  urged  along  in  a 
veritable  game  of  "Pussy  wants  a  corner"  that  would  have  been  redicu- 
lous  had  it  not  been  so  tragical.  Sometimes  it  was  a  deputy  sheriff  who 
was  to  be  found  at  a  certain  corner,  sometimes  it  was  the  peculiarity  of 
location  that  promised  an  entrance  beyond  the  death-line;  but  it  was 
always  "not  this  corner  but  some  other  corner."  Not  once  did  an 
officer  say,  "you  positively  cannot  see  your  husband.  You  are  forbidden 
to  enter  his  prison  and  bid  him  farewell,"  but  always  off'ered  the  induce- 
ment that  if  she  passed  quietly  along,  at  some  indefinite  point  she 
would  be  admitted. 

Meanwhile  the  precious  moments  were  flying  ;  sweet  little  Lulu's 
face  was  blue  with  cold,  and  her  beautiful  eyes  were  swimming  with  tears. 
Manly  little  Albert,  too,  was  shivering  in  the  raw  atmosphere,  as  he 
patiently  followed  his  grief  stricken  mother  from  one  warlike  street  to 
another. 

Then  Mrs.  Parsons  besought  the  officers  only  to  take  the  children  in 
for  their  father's  last  blessing  and  farewell ;  for  one  last  interview  that 
his  memory  might  never  be  effaced  from  their  young  and  impressible 
minds ;  one  last  look  that  the  image  of  that  noble  father  might  dwell  for- 
ever in  their  heart  of  hearts  ;  one  moment  in  which  to  listen  to  the  last  dear 
words  that  his  loving  and  prophetic  soul  might  dictate  to  the  darling 
children  left  to  live  after  him.  In  vain.  The  one  humble  prayer  the 
brave  woman  ever  voiced  to  the  authorities  in  power,  was  denied  her. 
They  heeded  her  not  except  to  hurry  her  along. 

The  last  sad  moments  of  her  dear  one's  life  were  wasting  so  steadily, 
so  relentlessly.  Who  can  picture  her  agony?  Who  can  wonder  at  her 
desperate  protest  against  the  "  regulations  of  the  law"  which  were  killing 
her  husband  and  forbidding  her  approach.  She  determinedly  crossed  the 
death  line  and  told  them  "  to  kill  her  as  they  were  murdering  her  hus- 
band.'' No,  they  were  not  so  merciful.  They  di*agged  her  outside, 
inveigled  her  around  to  a  (quieter  corner,  with  the  promise  of  "seeing 
about  it,"  and  there  ordered  her,  her  two  children  and  myself  into  a 
l)atrol  wagon  awaiting  us.     What  had  the  innocent  children  done  ? 

Pleaded  dumbly  with  soft,  tearful  eyes  for  their  father.  WTiat  was 
my  crime  ?  faithfulness  to  a  sorrowing  sister. 


19()  APPENDIX. 

Once  when  some  one  asked  me  if  I  could  not  "  prevail  on  that  woman 
to  keep  quiet  and  go  home,"  I  had  answered  : 

"  I  have  no  such  influence  over  her  and  would  not  exert  it  if  I  had. 
Do  you  wonder  that  she  is  nearly  distracted  with  grief  at  being  driven 
from  pillar  to  post  like  this,  when  in  one  short  hour  her  husband  will  be 
dead?  She  has  not  seen  him  for  five  days,  and  now  they  deny  her  the 
sacred  right  of  a  last  good  bye;  why  the  worst  despotisms  in  Europe  are 
not  so  bad  as  that." 

At  this  a  burly  brutal-looking  detective  in  citizen's  clothes  said: 

"  See  here  young  woman !  you  shut  up  or  we  will  send  you  off  in 
the  wagon!  " 

"Must  I  not  even  say  this  much,  in  a  free  country?"  I  asked  in 
surprise. 

"No,  you  can't,"  he  growled,  with  a  fierce  frown. 

And  this,  I  suppose,  constituted  "  my  harangue  to  the  people  on  the 
streets." 

And  so,  into  the  patrol  we  were  hustled,  a  heart-broken  wife  and 
mother,  two  innocent  tearful  children,  and  the  one  friend  near  her.  The 
"polite"  oflficers  did  not  perhaps  go  out  of  their  way  to  be  brutal  or 
rough,  but  were  about  as  "  courteous  "  as  so  many  wooden  men  moving 
about  like  machines.  Far  from  being  given  arm  chairs  in  a  comfortable 
office,  we  were  locked  up  in  dark,  dirty  stone  cells — Mrs.  Parsons  and 
her  children  in  one,  myself  in  another. 

And  there — shame  be  it  to  America  that  I  have  it  to  relate  !  there 
we  were  stripped  to  the  skin  and  searched  !  even  the  children,  crying 
with  fright,  were  undressed  and  carefully  searched. 

No  excuse  could  be  offered  that  we  were  ignorant  foreigners  and  did 
not  understand  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  that  the  safety  of  American 
institutions  depended  on  our  being  totally  unarmed;  for  the  blood  of 
revolutionary  forefathers  coursed  in  our  veins,  while  the  matron  and 
officers  who  gave  the  order  (if  there  be  any  merit  in  being  born  in  one 
country  rather  than  another)  had  not  been  here  long  enough  to  speak 
our  language  correctly. 

The  woman  ran  her  fingers  through  my  hair,  through  the  hems  of 
my  skirts,  the  gathers  of  my  undergarments,  even  to  my  stockings;  I 
asked  her  "what  she  expected  to  find." 

"  I  don't  know,"  she  simpered,  "this  is  my  duty." 

She  clanged  the  doors  behind  her  finally  aitd  we  were  left  alone. 
We  could  hear  each  other's  voices  but  could  not  see  one  another.  And 
in  those  gloomy,  underground  cells  we  })assed  those  terrible,  anxious  hours 
of  Friday  Nov.  11,  1887. 

God  knows  her  lot  would  have  been  bitter  enough  in  her  own  com- 
fortable home,  with  loving,  sympathizing  friends  at  her  side  to  support 
her  in  that  awful  time.  But  who  dare  dwell  upon  the  reality- — the  picture 
of  that  devoted  wife  in  such  a  place  at  such  an  hour  ? 

At  a  few  minutes  past  twelve  the  matron  came,  and  said  coldly  "  It 
is  all  over,"  and  left  us. 

Not  a  soul  came  and  asked  the  bereaved  women  if  they  could  help 
her  to  even  a  cup  of  cold  water.     And  I,  the  one  friend  near  her,  could 


Ai>PENDIX.  1^)  i 

only  sit  shivering  with  my  face  pressed  to  the  cruel  iron  bars,  listening  to 
her  low,  despairing  moans,  as  helpless  as  herself.. 

Every  friend  who  called  to  inquire  after  our  whereabouts  and  welfare 
was  sent  away  without  any  information  and  we  were  not  told  that  anyone 
had  been  to  see  us. 

Mr.  Holmes  came  as  early  as  he  received  word  that  we  had  been 
arrested,  and  was  not  only  denied  any  information,  but  was  roughly 
ordered  away  and  threatened  with  arrest  himself  "*  if  he  hung  around 
there." 

At  three  o'clock  Capt.  Schaack  came  down  and  asked  how  long  we 
had  been  there,  hypocritically  expressed  sorrow  that  we  had  been  locked 
up,  and  opened  our  prison  doors.  They  had  done  their  worst  and  Mrs. 
Parsons  was  permitted  to  go  to  her  desolated  home. 

And  thus  it  was  that  while  organized  authority  was  judicially  murder- 
ing the  husband  and  strangling  '*  the  voice  of  the  people."  the  wife  and 
children  were  locked  up  in  a  dungeon,  that  no  unpleasant  scene  might 
mar  the  smoothness  of  the  proceedings.  Where  is  there  a  parallel  in  his- 
tory ?  Only  in  the  state  where  dying  men  are  forbidden  to  speak  a  few 
last  words  can  such  a  scene  be  possible. 

Lizzie  M.  Holmes. 


Last  Hours  of  Life. 

The  news  of  Governor  Ogelsby's  refusal  to  commute  the  death  sentence 
except  as  to  Fielden  and  Schwab  was  received  by  all  the  prisoners  with 
perfect  composure. 

The  deputy  sheriff  who  was  with  Parsons  for  three  hours  on  the  night 
of  Nov.  10,  undertook,  when  he  was  relieved  at  one  o'clock  A.  M.  to  tell 
what  the  condemned  man  had  said,  but  when  he  began  to  realize  the 
enormity  of  the  task,  he  cut  his  narrative  short  by  saying:  ""He  was  verj^ 
cheerful  and  hopeful."  Such  was  indeed  the  case.  Parsons  was  never 
in  better  humor  than  he  was  that  night.  He  seemed  to  forget  entirelv 
that  he  would  have  to  die  within  twelve  hours,  so  interested  did  he  become 
in  his  own  harangue  to  the  death  watch.  He  talked  about  socialism, 
about  anarchy,  the  Haymarket,  and  his  wife  and  childi-en.  It  was  not 
until  he  had  reached  this  subject  that  he  manifested  any  sorrow  or  regret, 
and  the  more  he  talked  about  it  the  more  sorrowful  he  became.  He  said 
his  wife  was  a  brave  woman,  a  true  wife  and  a  good  mother. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  night  his  raj^t  soul  ])oured  itself  forth 
in  song.     He  sang  the  old  yet  beautiful  ballad: 

ANNIE  LAURIE. 

Maxwelton's  braes  are  bonny. 

Where  early  fa's  the  dew. 

And  'twas  there  that  Annie  Laurie 


198  APPENDIX. 

(xave  me  her  promise  true; 
Gave  me  her  promise  true, 
Which  ne'er  forgot  will  be, 
And  for  bonnie  Annie  Laurie, 
I'd  lay  me  down  and  dee. 

Her  brow  is  like  the  snawdrift; 
Her  throat  is  like  the  swan; 
Her  face  it  is  the  fairest, 
That  e'er  the  sun  shone  on: 
That  e'er  the  sun  shone  on, 
And  dark  blue  is  her  e'e, 
And  for  bonnie  Annie  Laurie, 
I'd  lay  me  down  and  dee. 

Like  dew  on  th'  go  wan  lying. 
Is  the  fa'  o'  her  fairy  feet. 
And  like  winds  in  summer  sighing, 
Her  voice  is  low  and  sweet; 
Her  voice  is  low  and  sweet, 
And  she's  a'  the  world  to  me, 
And  for  bonnie  Annie  Laurie, 
I'd  lay  me  down  and  dee. 

As  the  clear  tenor  voice  rang  through  the  gloomy  corridors  the  other 
prisoners  raised  themselves  on  their  elbows  and  listened-  Doubtless  to 
many  the  beautiful  lines  recalled  tender  memories  of  other  days. 

Early  the  morning  of  the  11th  all  the  doomed  men  were  awake. 
Parsons  ate  fried  oysters  and  seemed  to  enjoy  them.  After  breakfasting, 
he  recited  Marc  Cook's  beautiful  poem,  entitled  '*  Waiting,'"  with  smiliii^ 
features : 

Tell  me,  O  sounding  sea!  I  pray, 

Et(  rnally  undulating, 
Where  is  the  good  ship  that  sailed  away 
Once  on  a  long-gone  summer's  day — 

Sailed  and  left  me  waiting. 

No  braver  ship  was  ever  seen. 

As  over  the  sunlit  waters 
She  glided  on  with  stately  mien 
Of  a  fair,  white-vested  ocean  queen- 

A  queen  among  Neptune's  daughters. 

Her  sails  were  white  as  the  wings  of  a  dove  — 

Alas,  for  the  fate  she  was  daring  ! 
Gayly  she  rode  the  waves  above, 
Gayly,  as  if  all  conscious  of 

The  precious  freight  she  was  bearing. 

And  never  before  sailed  ship  from  shore 

With  a  cargo  half  so  precious  ; 
Youth,  hope  and  love  my  good  ship  bore, 
And  all  the  fair  visions  that  come  no  more 

In  sadder  days  to  refresh  us. 

Yes,  hope  and  love,  the  dreams  of  fame, 

Youths  sweet  self-satisfaction, 
Ambition,  which  kindles  the  blood  to  flame, 
The  lusty  longing  to  win  a  name 

On  life's  broad  fiekl  of  action: 


APPENDIX.  1 99 

All  these  my  good  ship  bore  away — 

With  such  rare  treasures  freighted 
She  sailed  on  that  long-flown  summer's  day: 
How  long  it  IS  no  tongue  can  say — 

Yet  still  have  T  waited  —  waited  ! 

And  ever  this  barren  shore  have  I  paced 

With  eyes  still  wearily  straining, 
Gazing  out  on  the  water's  waste, 
Where  naught  remains  of  the  faith  that  I  placed 

In  the  blue  waves,  uncomplaining. 

And  so,  through  the  long  and  desolate  years, 

Have  I  watched  for  my  ship's  returning ; 
Watched  and  waited  mid  doubts  and  fears, 
Waited  and  watched,  when  the  scalding  tears 
Adown  my  cheeks  were  burning. 

The  seasons  have  gone  and  rolled  away,  ) 

Each  with  its  burden  freighted. 
But  whether  December  or  whether  May, 
In  flush  of  the  morn  or  twilight  gray. 

Still  have  I  waited  —  waited  ! 

The  busy  world  to  the  New  has  turned, 

Its  pulses  palpitating ; 
Again  have  life's  bitter  lessons  been  learned, 
And  hands  have  labored  and  hearts  have  burned, 

While  I  for  my  ship  have  been  waiting.  ^ 

But  now  I  am  weary  and  hope  is  flown 

And  the  sea's  sad  undulating 
Breaks  on  my  ear  like  a  dismal  moan; 
My  ship  has  gone  down  in  the  waters  unknown, 

And  vain  has  been  all  my  waiting. 

After  awhile  spent  in  conversation,  the  question  of  his  funeral  arising, 
he  again  drew  upon  his  retentive  memory  and  expressed  his  inmost 
thoughts  in  these  beautiful  lines,  from  the  same  author  as  the  preceding: 

A   FAREWELL. 

Come  not  to  my  grave  with  your  mourninge* 
With  your  lamentations  and  tears. 
With  your  sad  forebodings  and  fears; 
When  my  lips  are  dumb, 
Do  not  come. 

Bring  no  long  train  of  carriages. 
No  hearse  crowned  with  waving  plumes. 
Which  the  gaunt  glory  of  death  illumes; 

But  w.th  hands  on  my  breast 

Let  me  rest. 

Insult  not  my  dust  with  your  pity. 
Ye  who're  left  on  this  desolate  shore 
Still  to  suffer  and  lose  and  deplore 

'Tis  I  should,  as  I  do. 

Pity  you. 

For  me  no  more  are  the  hardships, 
The  bitterness,  heartaches,  and  strife, 
The  sadness  and  sorrow  of  life. 

But  the  glory  divine 

This  is  mine. 


200  APPENDIX.  S 

Poor  creatures!    Afraid  of  the  darkness, 
Who  groan  at  the  anguish  to  come  ? 
How  silent  I  go  to  my  home; 

Cease  your  sorrowful  bell ; 
I  am  well! 

During  the  reading  of  the  death  warrant  his  face  was  a  study.  His 
eyes  were  unnaturally  brilliant,  but  whatever  emotion  he  felt  was  firmly 
checked  by  the  indomitable  spirit  which  had  hitherto  sustained  him.  He 
toyed  carelessly  with  his  mustache  and  let  his  eyes  rest  easily  upon  the 
objects  about  him.  As  the  men  moved  forward  Parsons  turned  to  the  Jenkins' 
of  the  press,  who  were  scrutinizing  every  action  and  said  sarcastically: 
"  Won't  you  come  inside  ?" 

WTien  the  halter  was  placed  about  his  neck  he  never  faltered.  He 
stood  erect,  looking  earnestly  yet  reproachfully  at  the  people  before  him. 
The  nooses  were  quickly  adjusted,  the  caps  pulled  down,  and  a  hasty  move- 
ment made  for  the  traps.    Then  from  beneath  the  hoods  came  these  words : 

Spies:  "There  will  be  a  time  when  our  silence  will  be  more  pow- 
erful than  the  voices  you  strangle  to-day!" 

Fischer :     ' '  Hurrah  for  anarchy — ' ' 

Engel:     "Hurrah  for  anarchy!'' 

Fischer:     "This  is  the  happiest  moment  of  my  life!" 

Parsons:     "Will  I  be   allowed  to   speak,  O  men  of  America  y     Let 

me  speak.  Sheriff  Matson!    Let  the  voice  of  the  people  be  heard!    O " 

But  the  signal  had  been  given,  and  the  officers  of  the  state  performed  their 
mission  by  strangling  both  speakers  and  speech. 


Last  Letter  to  an  Old  Comrade. 

Cook  County  Jail,  Nov.  11,  1887. — My  Dear  Comrade  Lum:  Eight 
(8)  o'clock  A.M.  The  guard  has  just  awakened  me.  I  have  washed  face 
and  di-ank  cup  of  coffee.  The  doctor  asked  if  I  wanted  stimulants.  I 
said  no.  The  dear  "  boys,"  Engel,  Fischer  and  Spies,  saluted  me  with 
firm  voices. 

Please  see  Sheriff  Matson  and  take  charge  of  my  papers  and  letters. 
Among  them  find  MS.  letters  from  Gen.  W.  H.  Parsons'  book — return  it 
to  Norfolk,  Ya.  Please  have  my  book  on  "Anarchism:  Its  Philosophy  and 
Scientific  Basis"  put  into  good  shape,  etc. 

Later. — Well,  my  dear  old  comrade,  the  fatal  hour  draws  near. 
Csesar  kept  me  awake  till  late  at  night  with  the  noise  (music)  of  hammer 
and  saw,  erecting  his  throne,  my  scaffold.  Refinement!  Civilization! 
Matson  (sheriff)  tells  me  he  refused  to  agree  to  let  Caesar  (state)  secrete 
my  body,  and  hie  has  just  got  my  wife's  address  from  me  to  send  her  my 
remains.  Magnanimous  Caesar!  Alas,  good-bye  I  Hail  the  social  revolu- 
tion!    Salutations  to  all.  A.  R.  Parsons. 


TO  THE  PUBLIC! 


The  Following  Books  and  Pamphlets  Will  be  Sent, 
Post-paid,   on   Receipt   of  Price. 


The  Haymarket  Speech  of  Albert  R.  Parsons, 

Delivered  at  the  Havmarket  on  Mav  4th,  1886,  and  repeated  by  him  be- 
fore the  jury.    Paper 1 $0  10 

The  Facts  Concerning  the  Eight  Condemned  Leaders. 

By  Leon  Lewis.     Mr.  Lewis  is  a  writer  of  national   reputation,  and  sets 
forth  the  facts  concerning  the  great  trial  in  a  spirited  and  trenchant  man- 
f  ner.      Paper 10 

A  Concise  History  of  the  Trial, 

Taken  from  the  Official  Records.  The  only  authentic  history  of  the 
great  trial  ever  written.     By  Dyer  D.  Lum.     Paper 35 

The  Accused  The  Accusers. 

Famous  Speeches  of  the  Eight  Anarchists,  delivered  before  Judge  Gary 

on  October  7th,  8th,  and  9th,  1886.     Paper ._ \         25 

August  Spies  Autobiography. 

Containing  portraits  of  August  Spies  and  Nina  Van  Zandt  Spies,  with 
notes  and  explanations.      Paper,  25c.     Cloth 65 

Was  it  a  Fair  Trial? 

By  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull.  (Enlarged  edition  of  Gen.  Trumbull's 
Pamphlet  now  being  prepared.)     Paper _-_         10 

Anarchy. 

By  C.  L.  James.     Historical  and  Scientiiic.     Paper 10 

Letters  to  Young  People, 

By  Prince  Kropotkin.     Paper ^ • 05 

French  and  German  Socialism. 

Pr';f.  R.  T.  Ely.     Paper  25c.     Cloth 75 

Manifesto  of  the  Communists. 

By  Karl  Marx.     Important  to  Investigators 10 

Law  and  Authority. 

By   Prince  Kropotkin 05 

Anarchy  and  the  Anarchists. 

A  Sermon  by  Rev.  J.  C.  Kimball,  of  Hartford,  Conn.     Paper 10 

Our  Boarders. 

A  pamphlet,  by  Lizzie  M.  Swank,  is  soon  to  be  issued.  Those  who  have 
read  the  writings  of  fhis  well-known  and  talented  woman  will  appreciate 
the  treat  in  store  for  them.  In  this  forthcoming  work  will  be  contained 
many  of  her  miscellaneous  articles 

Conventional  Lies  of  Our  Civilization. 

A  Scathing  Criticism  of  Modern  Society;  by  Max  Nordau 

Women  in  the  Past,  Present  and  Future. 

By   August  Bebel 


Cabinet   Photographs   of  Albert  R.    Parsons   as 

"  The  Carpenter  in  Waukesha!' 

This  photograph  represents  Mr.  Parsons   as  he  appeared  while  working  as  a 

carpenter,  at  Waukesha,  Wis.,  where  he  sojourned  seven  weeks   after  his 

escape  from  Chicago.     In  this  figure,  in  slouch   hat,  workman's   apron 

and  bare   arms,  it  is   difficult  to  recognize  the  features  of   the 

Ex-Editor  of   the   Alarm.       The   eyes   only  are   his. 

SINGLE  PHOTOGRAPHS,  (POST-PAID),        -        -        -        -        25  Cents. 


Song,  -ANNIE  LAURIE: 

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''Five  Martyrs!' 

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photographs,  and  not  lithographs. 

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Address      -    MRS.    A.    R.    PARSONS,     -      Room  35. 

169  Washington  Street,  CHICAGO. 

A  JOURNAL  OF  ANARCHISM. 

DYER  D.   LUM,  -  -  Editor. 


SPECIAL       CONTRIBUTORS. 

LIZZIE  M.  SWANK,  Illinois.  GERTRUDE  B.  KELLY,  New  York. 

GEORGIA  REPLOGLE,  California.  JOHN  F.  KELLY,  New  York, 

C.  L.  JAMES,  Wisconsin.  GEO.  SCHUMM,  Minnesota. 

JOS.  LABADIE,  Michigan.  ALBERT  CURRLiN,  Missouri. 

G.  C.  CLEMENS.'.Kansas.  W.  C.  OWEN,  Oregon. 


5^^°°° Every  reader  interested  in  Social  Questions,  all  who  are  seeking  information  regarding- 
Anarchy,  what  it  If,  what  it  proposes,  what  answers  it  gives  to  popular  objections,  and  how  it  would 
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NOTICE. 

The  absorbing  interest  centering  in  the  lives,  the  work,  and  heroie 
<leath  of  the  five  martyrs  to  liberty  makes  a  further  revievsr  of  them  not 
only  desirable,  but  necessary.  With  this  end  in  view%  the  posthumous 
papers  of  Albert  R.  Parsons  will  soon  be  published  in  book  form  at  a 
low  price.  This  book  will  contain  the  autobiography  of  the  American 
anarchist;  an  account  of  his  numerous  missionary  journeyings,  with 
letters  to  his  wife  and  friends  while  engaged  in  spreading  socialistic 
truths  among  the  miners  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  the  farmers  and 
townsmen  of  the  west,  and  the  workmen  of  the  cities;  extracts  from 
his  published  articles;  reminiscences  and  anecdotes,  and  a  faithful  and 
graphic  account  of  his  escape  from  Chicago  on  the  night  of  May  4, 
1886,  his  wanderings,  his  life  in  Waukesha,  and  his  adventurous  return 
to  Chicago  for  trial  with  his  fellow-comrades'.  The  whole  will  make  a 
book  of  no  common  interest,  and  will  be  read  by  thousands  whose 
hearts  beat  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  Universal  Progress. 


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J'^M      This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
.^^  ..;^:?>J?  on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

^f ^S        Renewed  books  are  subjea  to  immediate  recall 


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REC.CIR.OCT     2  78 


NOV    1 '67 -9  AM 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


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